Like A Vixen Scorned
by The Oracle
Summary: Krystal, off her breakup with Fox, is pulled into an uncharted system, and forced to fight a shocking new enemy, with the help of a cocky young cadet. Rated T for violence and some strong language.
1. Chapter 1

This story uses characters from the Starfox game series, and enemies inspired by characters in Doctor Who (The New version, appearance-wise). I do not own the rights to either of these franchises, and have no intention to make any money through them.

I also don't have an extremely vast knowledge of the Starfox universe. If I'm getting something wrong, please take it with a grain of salt, and just tell me as civil as possible. ;

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"Ok, all 'Wild Dog' squadron, check in." Fox spoke over the communicator, his new team flying behind them in their vessels.

"Typhon here." A rhino called out in one vessel.

"Boomer standing by." A cheetah called out from another.

"Hawkeye ready to go." A hawk answered from the next.

"Fang, locked and loaded." A cocky young Coyote finally responded.

Fox nodded as all of his team members checked in. It had been only a few weeks since he was given the chance to assemble his own squadron. Initially it was an assignment he took to forget about the hardships in his personal life lately, but he soon found his focus, and selected the finest young pilots at the academy to take under his wing.

"Good. Let's get to our assignment then." Fox lead the way as the entire group of fighters flew over into the boundary of the Mondas system. It was a largely overlooked system, since there was no evidence of any life on the planets. But a few hours ago, a station near the boundary picked up some kind of a blip on the scanners, and sent the squadron out to investigate.

"Are you sure their scanners are working right?" Fang enquired. "I don't see anything out here."

"Be patient, Fang." Hawkeye responded. "Give the scanners a little more time to look around."

"Pfft, scanners." Fang chuckled. "No better scanner than the eyes, I say."

"All right, knock it off you two." Fox scolded. "If there is anything out here, we're only gonna find it if we stay on task, understood?"

"Yes sir." Fang nodded softly.

The search was short-lived, however, as Boomer suddenly looked up from his scanner. "Fox, we're picking up a few unidentified craft up ahead."

"What the hell?…" Typhon checked his scanners to confirm this.

"Well, whatever these things are, they're coming up quick, and that means they might be in attack formation. Prepare yourselves." Fox readied his weapon systems.

"It's about time!" Fang exclaimed, finally getting to see some action outside of the simulator, as he readied his weapons.

"Fang…" Fox narrowed his eyes. "You stay cool, ok? Remember what I told you…"

Fang rolled his eyes. "The hotheads always go down first." He recited.

"You'd do well to keep that in mind. Stay in the formation too this time." Fox flew ahead of the other ships, as Fang nodded slowly at his advice.

The squadron flew on deeper into the boundary, until they suddenly saw the form of three crescent-shaped fighter ships come into view, immediately firing strong lasers at them all as the squadron evaded them quickly.

"What a welcoming!" Boomer shouted as they evaded.

"What the hell are those things?" Hawkeye scrambled to return fire.

"They're not gonna live long enough for us to find out!" Fang gripped his weapon controls and readied himself as the squadron turned around.

Fox gritted his teeth and prepared to fire. "Ok gang. Wait for them to get a little closer, and let them have it!"

Everyone nodded as they looked on, zooming towards the unknown craft and firing once they were close enough. Two of the craft zipped away in time, but the third took a hard hit from one of the blasts, smoking now as it flew.

Inside one of the enemy ships, there was a crew of odd beings, just like in the other two. They were completely covered in metal, but something in the shape of the heads seemed to indicate that they were once animals themselves. One of these Cyber creatures tromped forward slowly, looking to the one sitting at the main seat of the bridge.

"Unit 3 has sustained heavy damage." The creature spoke in a sterile, distorted, computer-like monotone, just like all of the others. It's mouth glowed blue as it spoke.

"Continue with current tactics" The bridge commander responded. "The protection of the home world is the top priority."

Another one of these beings turned from where it was sitting and spoke. "Commander. Request acquirement of organic specimen. Further study may assist in future protection tactics."

"Request granted." The commander spoke. "Give home world the command to launch tractor beam, once suitable specimen flies into line."

"Affirmative." The other being answered, turning back into its seat.

Meanwhile, Fang and Hawkeye combined their fire to destroy the ship they had damaged before, as Fox and the others kept the other two at bay.

"Good shooting you two." Fox called out. "Stay on your toes!"

The squadron kept up the fight, until the second craft suddenly made a crafty move and fired, clipping Hawkeye's ship!

"I'm hit!" Hawkeye yelled out, trying to regain his bearings as Typhon flew his ship down to hold him up. As this was going on, Fang, Boomer, and Fox were now slightly shorthanded, evading relentless firing from the Cybers in their two ships.

"Typhon, we need a hand here!" Fang yelled out.

"Fang, I can't let go of Hawkeye's ship in this condition!" Typhon grunted as he struggled with the controls.

"Let him hold the ship up, Fang!" Fox scolded him again. "Concentrate on our enemies!"

Boomer shook his head as he fired and evaded. "I just wish we a little more firepower here!"

Boomer's wish was suddenly granted, as a single fighter flew into view, and fired at the second Cyber ship, taking out one of the engines quickly as it ignited, and soon blew up into millions of pieces!

Fox soon heard a familiar voice over the communicator…"Don't look at this is a truce, Fox…I just don't want to see another cadet lose his life."

"Krystal!" Fox shouted out to his now ex-girlfriend. "What are you doing out here?"

"I was on the station that picked up your little blip…" She responded. "I thought I'd come out and help your new team members, the ones you actually trust to protect themselves in dangerous situations, unlike some others you know."

Fox sighed. "Krystal, please, I-"

The vixen cut him off afterword, shutting off her communicator as she flew in to finish off the third and final enemy ship, not knowing that the Cybers were waiting for her to come close enough.

"Fire tractor beam!" The one Cyber called into the com-link with the home world.

A large emerald beam suddenly shot out from nowhere, immediately snatching Krystal's ship and immobilizing it. Krystal grunted and struggled with the controls soon afterward.

"Krystal!" Fox shouted, trying to think of a way to respond, until Fang suddenly broke formation and flew right towards the area of the beam.

"I've got her, Fox!"

Fox jumped up almost. "Fang! Get back here right now!"

The Cyber commander noticed Fang's ship. "Increase beam intensity. Do not let enemy interfere."

The beam grew stronger as the rest of the squadron pulled away, while Fang grunted and wrestled his slipping control, any attempts to free Krystal from the beam now futile as he was now pulled into it.

The beam quickly retracted soon after, pulling the two ships away, as the one remaining enemy ship zipped off to the homeworld very quickly.

Fox grunted, hitting the dashboard of his ship in frustration, the rest of his crew awaiting orders.

Fox sighed. "Ok. Turn back and head for the nearest base. We've gotta get Hawkeye's ship fixed before we can figure out what to do about this."

The remaining crew complied quickly, and flew off, Typhon's ship still carrying Hawkeye's.

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The sun slowly rose over the surface of the odd, alien planet in the Mondas system, the atmosphere that of nature and technology thrown together, but in a filthy, unnatural way. An object suddenly fell through the black sky, and crashed into the ground below.

Krystal slowly pulled herself up from the door of the new escape pod she had added onto her ship, being able to activate before the Cybers took possession of the ship completely. She stood up in her new, black suit, which covered much of her body, and concealed her many new weapons. She had learned much about combat since the break-up, the kinds of things that Fox would have a heart attack over if he knew she was learning them.

As she surveyed the area, she heard something falling, as she looked up to see Fang's ship falling down into the land. Fang tried to control it as best he could, its power supply failing from the force of the tractor beam, which weakened from the distraction of Krystal's escape, allowing him to break away, before finally making a hard landing not too far from where Krystal was.

The vixen quickly ran over as Fang grunted and pushed open the door on his ship. "Man…that's something they don't teach in the academy." He chuckled.

Krystal crossed her arms. "Not surprising, seeing as how the Academy's never encountered a tractor beam that strong."

Fang coughed a bit as he nodded, getting a good look at her.

"Oh hey…" he exclaimed. "I've heard about you…you're Fox's Ex, right?"

Krystal narrowed her eyes as she got closer to Fang. "Wanna do me a favor?"

Fang tilted his head to her. "What's that?"

Krystal soon grabbed him right by the crotch as he yelled out in pain.

"Don't ever, EVER, bring that name up again…unless you no longer want to be recognizable as a male…understand me?"

Fang whimpered and nodded quickly as she let go. "Good…Now gather whatever weapons you have, and stay with me, because I'm the only chance you have of getting out of this place alive, cadet,"

Krystal soon walked off, not at all like the kind of girl Fang had heard about, as he nursed his sore spot and got his guns out of the ship.

"Geez…now I know why he broke up with her." He grumbled to himself, before scrambling out of the downed ship, and walking off behind Krystal, not saying a thing.

The Cyber commander from the ship was now tromping slowly through the corridors leading to the outside of the craft, with other Cybers behind it.

"Where are your specimens, commander?" An even more distorted voice called out from the speakers on board the ship.

The commander spoke. "They managed to escape the beam somehow, sir."

The voice spoke up once more. "Find them, Commander. I will not send out a tractor beam, and thus risk the exposure of our home base, without having anything to show for it!"

"They shall not wander far from us, sir. I shall see to it personally." The commander finally led his squad of Cybers off the ship, the voice not saying anything else as they commenced their search for the vixen, and her unwilling traveling companion.


	2. Pursuit

Krystal ran along the forbidding alleys of this strange, dirty world with Fang following close behind. She slid and crept along the walls with ease, as Fang took soft steps with his pistol in his grasp at all times, his maroon colored fur fairly damp, with his white furred underside, from the occasional drizzles coming from the dark, polluted skies.

"Get back!" Krystal spoke softly to him, as she heard something in the distance, finding a space in which to hide with the cadet. The sound of hard metal footsteps began to echo through the alley of the never-ending city.

Fang's eyes went wide when he saw them, a group of Cybers, marching through the street, patrolling the area as Krystal stayed hidden with him.

"Robots…" Fang spoke as the group left the area. "We're in a world of robots."

"No." Krystal shook her head. "These things aren't robots…"

Fang furrowed his brow. "Well, they sure look like they are."

"Fang…" Krystal turned to the cadet, "If these things were robots, I wouldn't be sensing organic thought patterns in them right now."

"Well, what are they thinking, then?" Fang tilted his head in interest.

Krystal sighed. "Mostly the same basic thoughts…'track'…'obey'….'delete'."

Fang shook a bit as he held his pistol. "I hope we can find your ship, and get out of here soon. This place is starting to give me the willies."

Krystal nodded as she pulled out her own gun. "This city has to have some kind of central database. We might get some answers if we find that first."

Fang nodded as he followed the vixen, keeping an eye out all around him as they left the alley. What he couldn't see was the figure of a creature, that was not a Cyber, looking down on them from the top of a building, watching the two like a hawk…

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"The Mondas system?" A confused Falco looked to Fox as he explained what happened. Falco was the only available Starfox team member who could come to the base where Fox was on now, since Pepe was too busy giving a lecture at the academy, and Slippy was too occupied with "upgrading" parts of his ship.

"Yeah." Fox nodded. "I've never seen ships like these before, Falco. We took two of them down, but we had a hell of a time doing it. I don't even want to think about what a whole armada of those things could do to us. "

Falco nodded and looked over to the rest of Fox's squad, sitting around talking to each other, unsure of what was going to happen.

"Say…" Falco thought to himself before speaking again. "Isn't the Mondas system close to where Cerinia used to be?"

"I think so." Fox furrowed his brow. "What's your point?"

"Well…" Falco scratched his chin some. "I'm just looking for a reason as to why Krystal would be hanging around there, out of all the other places to be, in the galaxy."

"I don't know." Fox groaned, trying not to think about her right now. "Right now, I'm more concerned about Fang. This was supposed to be a routine scan and sweep. It's bad enough I took these rookies into dangerous combat before they were ready, if I don't return to the Academy with Fang intact, I'm in big trouble."

"Settle down, settle down." Falco motioned with his wings at the same time. "I'm sure there's a way we can find both of them. All we have to do is figure out where that tractor beam came from."

Fox hummed to himself. "How are we gonna do that?"

Falco scoffed. "Hell, I don't know.", He laughed some, "But I'm sure we'll improvise something, as always."

He walked off and checked something on a computer screen nearby as Fox sat back and shook his head slowly. "You're a real comfort, Falco."

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Krystal continued to stealthily sneak along the streets of the depressed, and broken looking city that made up this strange planet. Not a single trace of life could be found, as she and Fang hid every so often from any group of patrolling Cybers that might have seen them.

After waiting another few seconds, Krystal slowly crept out, and motioned for Fang to follow…before she sensed something flying right at her!

Krystal quickly spun and swung her staff, deflecting a blast from a Cyber in the distance, as it smashed back into the hand the Cyber shot it from, burning it's hand off. It let out a loud electronic howl, as if it were in pain, while Krystal grabbed Fang's paw and ran with him.

"We've been spotted!" She shouted.

"How did that happen?" a flustered Fang asked. "I thought you were good at sneaking around." Suddenly, another Cyber came out and fired at them, as Fang awkwardly began to return fire with his pistol, each shot just bouncing off the Cyber's armor.

"They must have more than one way to watch every place." Krystal spoke quickly as she closed her eyes and focused her telepathy before finally exclaiming. "The mouth!"

"What?" Fang looked over to her, as he dodged another blast.

"It's their weak point, Fang! Aim for the mouth!"

Fang's jaw dropped. "But it's, like, this wide!" he held his fingers only slightly apart.

"Do you want do as I say, or do you want to be dead?" Krystal barked.

Fang nodded quickly as he got up and fired a few more times, eventually hitting the Cyber in the mouth. "Gyaaahhhhhh!" The Cyber exclaimed as sparks shot from its head. It fell over and erupted in sparks, clearly a goner as Fang smiled and led the way now, protecting Krystal as she withdrew her own pistol, her staff still sheathed along her back diagonally.

Fang ran right into another area where Cybers patrolled. "Let's rooooooock!" He shouted, before letting loose with another barrage of shots from his pistol, while Krystal soon backed him up with a rapid fire spray of lasers from her specially built gun, keeping the Cybers at bay before taking out her staff and waving it through the air, letting the group have it with a well-placed fireball, before pulling Fang away into another corridor underneath the city.

"I get it, Fang,…" she grunted a bit as she put her gun away, annoyed with his brashness. "You've got guts. But even people with guts aren't fireproof." Fang just held his gun, as he followed Krystal, who lit up the end of her staff to guide them through the dark corridor.

"Man…" Fang thought to himself. "It's bad enough your Ex has to lecture me all the time. You have to do it too?"

More groups of Cybers were now leaving one of their central bases, a few of them departing in special land cruisers, that hovered a few feet above the ground as they zipped off into sections of the city.

One of them tromped over to what looked like an intercom, and pressed a button.

"The Outsiders have been detected. Unit 57-Z engaged them, only to sustain heavy casualties in the process. We are still currently tracking the two specimens."

"These specimens of ours are becoming more and more of a problem from where I sit." The same distorted voice from before spoke to the Cyber. "Where are they now?"

The Cyber's mouth lit up once more. "They last seen heading into the western tunnel system."

"Let them think they have escaped detection for now." The voice spoke. "As soon as you see them heading out of an exit, give them some distance to run, then ambush them. I want these two apprehended at all costs."

"Affirmative" The Cyber nodded slowly, before tromping off to join the rest of its currently stationed unit.

Krystal kept the way lit as she walked through the quiet series of tunnels, getting a bit lost, as there were split paths everywhere.

"Where do we go now?" Fang enquired as he held his gun.

"Give me a minute to think." Krystal responded, before looking at Fang and his gun. "I think you can put that away for now. We're not likely to encounter many dangers in a dead place like this."

Fang shrugged, as he slowly holstered his weapon, following her as she walked slowly with her staff outstretched.

"So, Cadet, what brought you to the Academy in the first place."

"Why are you so interested, all of a sudden." Fang asked.

"I'd like to get an idea of who my partner is."

He nodded as he walked and thought to himself about the subject. "Well, what can I say? I wanted to see a little action, I love flying when I can, and I wanted to go where a lot of my friends were headed. That, and the pay is lousy at the moisture farms back home, in the desert."

Krystal hummed to herself. "That's not a complex response."

Fang chuckled a bit. "Hey, I'm not a complex kind of guy."

Krystal smiled a bit, as she looked left and right. "You're a real grunt, then."

He scoffed a bit at this analysis. "Now wait, I wouldn't exactly say that."

"Oh, I would." She turned slightly. "What are you going to do about it anyway, Cadet?" She gave a quick glance at his crotch, as he simply turned his head away, and shrugged.

It was then that she turned to another path and walked. "This way."

"How do you know this is a way out?" Fang asked as he followed.

"Simple. I can smell the air pollution a little better from this direction." She dimmed the glow on her staff, as it began to get naturally brighter in the tunnel. "Always remember to utilize all five of the senses. Or six, in my case."

The two travelers walked back out into the strange city, seeing an odd looking statue in the middle of what looked like a square. Rust, and other pollutants, had eaten away at the figure, making it impossible to know what it was, exactly.

Fang quickly withdrew his pistol once again, and patrolled the area.

"It looks clear." He said as he looked back over to Krystal, who was looking high up, distracted by something.

"What's wrong?"

Krystal looked back down. "I sense something. Something a bit…odd."

"More of those robot things?" Fang readied his gun. "It's a good we know their weakness, then."

"No…" Krystal shook her head. "This doesn't feel like one of them."

She then ran off and looked back to Fang. "We'd better move quickly, now!"

The cadet nodded, and ran off with her, getting about halfway through the square, before a large collection of Cybers suddenly jumped out of two of the abandoned buildings nearby!

"Engage the outsiders!" The unit leader shouted through its illuminated mouth, as the Cybers all held out their arms, firing lasers from the palms of their hands, their deadly forms toned down according to their leader's request for simple capture.

Fang narrowly avoided being hit by these stun rays, before firing back, trying to hold his own, as Krystal let out a loud battle cry, running in and swinging at one Cyber with her staff, taking its feet out from underneath as she took out a smaller pistol and held it in her other hand, firing and smashing the Cyber's mouth apart, as she turned, and smashed another Cyber across the face with a quick swing of her staff, again firing with her pistol at the same time.

Fang was quickly grabbed by a Cyber from behind, as he screamed a bit and struggled, before cocking his pistol behind him and firing, getting the Cyber right in the mouth as it howled and sparked, running off and jumping to smash another Cyber with his right knee, crushing its face as he landed and got right next to Krystal.

"How did you do that?" She asked as she fired and swung at two other Cybers.

Fang hit his knee, producing a clanging, metallic sound. "Implant. I lost my real knee in a cruiser accident."

He jumped out of the way as two Cybers made a grab for him, making them collide into each other as Krystal fought to give herself some space between her and the Cybers. When she finally got it, she holstered her gun, and jumped a few feet into the air, coming back down and smashing her staff into the ground, making it quake as the Cybers struggled to stay on their feet, while Fang stumbled a bit as well.

Krystal used this moment to grab fang, and head off with him into another alley, vanishing.

"After them!" The unit leader called out, as the remaining Cybers got to their feet and quickly followed this command.

Krystal and Fang ran like hell through the alley, as a few scant Cybers crashed through the boarded door and made a grab for them. Krystal soon knocked them away with her staff as Fang fired away with his gun, hitting two of them right in the mouth from a distance.

"I think I've finally got the hang of this!" He laughed a bit as he covered Krystal, who took out a dagger from a compartment in her suit, and promptly stabbed one in the mouth through it. She then sensed something else, and tossed the dagger off into the alley to her right, as it twirled through the air.

Fang quickly looked over as the dagger flew, only to be caught by a hand that came out of the shadows…a furred hand!

Krystal looked to the alley with Fang soon after taking down the last Cyber. The same creature that had been spying on them earlier, finally stepped out of the shadows. She was a vixen, and appeared to be of the same species as Krystal! Her fur was a light reddish gold, her hair blonde, like the tip of her tail. She even wore the same basic outfit Krystal wore in her days on Sauria, and even held her own staff at her side.

The vixen walked out, holding Krystal's dagger up. "You want it? Come and get it!"

Fang just stepped back as Krystal furrowed her brow, her mouth wide open. "Who the hell are you?" She said slowly, totally floored.

The vixen didn't answer, as she soon held out her staff and yelled out. "I've found them!"

Fang and Krystal soon heard more tromping in the distance, as a group of Cybers, seemingly under the vixen's command, came out from behind her and fired! The shots all carefully sailed past the vixen, as Krystal grabbed Fang, who was too busy trying to return fire, and ran off with him. The vixen ran along after the two, trying to keep close to them and her Cybers at the same time, so they wouldn't get lost.

As all of this was going on, a Cyber tromped slowly into a strange room, far from where the action was. It stopped a few feet short of a large mobile chair; with it's back turned to the Cyber.

The same distorted voice spoke from the turned chair, which had respirators attached that hissed every so often. "Progress report, commander."

The Cyber commander spoke. "Unit 115-A engaged the outsiders, but soon lost them due to some bizarre powers the female seems to possess. But we have not lost them. Unit 85-K is now in hot pursuit."

"Topaz's unit." The voice of the creature in the chair responded. It turned to reveal the face of what, evidently, was once a male fox, half of its head organic, while the other half was held together by a grotesque assembly of robotic parts, it's one mechanical eye glowing red as it held out a skeletal, cybernetic arm to the Cyber commander.

"These two outsiders are becoming even more of an unnecessary headache. If our units cannot apprehend them within the next hour, give the command to delete them on sight!"

"Yes sir." The Cyber responded, as it turned and tromped out of the room with its heavy, metal feet.

The creature sighed. "I will not let these two ruin years and years of careful planning." It turned back to face one of the screens in its room.


	3. First meeting

Krystal ran faster and faster, with Fang trying to keep up from behind, trying get a distance from the mysterious vixen, and the group of Cybers she seemed to be commanding. Krystal in particular was floored by this revelation, as she kept her staff ready at all times now.

"What's going on here?" Fang puffed as he ran. "F-…I mean, you-know-who, told me you were the last of your kind."

Krystal shook her head as she ran. "Neither of us could really confirm that. I always held out hope that I'd find another fellow survivor." She slowed down, as she didn't see any Cybers going after them anymore. "The only thing I'm wondering about is why she's working with these things?"

"That's something you need not concern yourself with." A voice suddenly called out from above, as the two looked up to see the same Vixen, looking down at them from a balcony on one of the abandoned buildings that made the alley.

The walls near Krystal and Fang suddenly exploded, as the unit of Cybers came marching out from them, holding out their hands as stun rays fired from compartments on their wrists. Krystal immediately ducked and rolled as one of them fired, moving right towards one blast as she swung her staff like a bat, knocking the laser right back into the face of one Cyber as its face sparked, turning and firing an ice blast from her staff, as it hit the feet of another cyber, freezing it in place while Fang grabbed a Cyber and managed to bring it down on his metal knee, crunching the metal of its chest in some as he kicked it into Krystal, who sent it flying into the frozen Cyber with a jump kick to the back of its head, making the two beings collide hard as they smashed each other up on impact.

Fang rolled out of the way of another blast, and jumped up some as he yelled out and fired, scoring a direct hit on one Cyber's mouth as more sparks flew, the Cyber going down with a crash, as Krystal swung her staff from left to right, smacking one Cyber in the face, before turning and swiping her staff at another one, smacking into its side as she sent it flying into some boxes next to her.

As Krystal was occupied with her own tactics, Topaz, the enigmatic vixen in charge of this unit, readied her staff. "Ok…I've had enough of playing spectator now."

As Fang fired his gun, and kicked away another advancing Cyber, he heard what sounded like a scream from above, only to find it was Topaz giving off her war cry. She landed in the middle of the action as The Cybers stood back, letting her work as she swung her staff for Fang's middle. He got a hold of her staff, catching it, before she used this moment to jump up and kick him right in the chest with a bare foot, sending him towards a dumpster as he hit the wall hard!

He scrambled back up in pain as he clumsily fired his gun, only to have her yell out as she spun and swung her staff, smacking the blast and sending it right back towards Fang as he dove out of the way, firing again as she then held out her staff to the side, deflecting the blast towards Krystal, who in turn sensed it just as quickly, and ducked with her staff in the air, sending it flying back towards another Cyber, and hitting it right in the face.

Topaz glanced over at Krystal with a smirk. "Hmm, not bad." Before she sensed Fang coming at her, trying to engage her hand-to hand, but not realizing what a stupid idea that was. He lunged with a straight punch, only to have Topaz catch his hand and twist along his wrist, dropping her staff and moving off to the side as she flipped him down onto the ground.

"You can't be serious." Topaz laughed, as Fang grunted and came at her with a yell, trying to take her down with a roundhouse kick, before she promptly grabbed his foot and leaned in, punching him hard in the face a few times, then finally throwing him off by his leg as he rolled onto the ground and rubbed his face, groaning a bit as he got back up, while Topaz reclaimed her staff.

She lunged in and thrust her staff at his face, making him grab the end, as she used the leverage to leap into the air while he still held it, sailing behind him as she kicked him in the back of the head, making him yell out in pain as he fell down on his front, laying there with the end of her staff pinned against his head.

"Playtime's over, big boy." Topaz sneered as she pinned him down. "Time to come home with me, and meet the family."

Just then, she sensed something coming right at her from the side, taking the staff and swinging it upwards as she deflected a blast from Krystal's gun. The blue vixen stood there with the gun as she stared down Topaz, Cybers downed around her feet as others began to advance on her.

Topaz signaled for them to stop. "You've had your chance to grab her. Let me give it a shot." The Cybers stopped in their places and simply watched now. Krystal put away her gun and readied her staff.

"What a day this has turned out to be." Topaz smiled. "Just when I thought I had no other worthy opponents, I happen to find another surviving Cerinian right here in the Mondas system. How splendid."

Krystal looked around at the standing Cybers, as Fang stumbled back onto his feet, shaking her head. "For someone who dresses and looks like a Cerinian, you keep very strange company. What are you doing commanding these machine-people, anyway."

Topaz rolled her head a bit as she readied herself with her staff. "That is for you to find out. Defeat me, and I'll tell you everything."

Krystal nodded slowly, before twirling her staff from left to right with both of her hands. She moved towards Topaz, spinning and taking a swing, as Topaz brought up her staff and blocked the attack, trying to push her away with a sidekick as Krystal quickly ducked, and smacked her leg with the staff.

Topaz yelped as she spun on her other leg, smacking Krystal's staff away with her own, as she landed and rubbed at her leg a bit, smirking. "You're better than I thought."

Krystal said nothing, readying herself for another attack as Topaz yelled out and ran in with her staff, lunging in with a forward thrust as Krystal swiftly moved to the side and clashed her staff with that of her opponent, trying to twirl it out of her hands as Topaz quickly countered, jumping and moving with her staff as it rolled off to the side, bringing up her strong legs as she spun in the air, and kicking Krystal right across the face.

Topaz rolled back onto her feet as Krystal fell back against a wall, grunting and rubbing her face as Topaz shot a fireball from the end of her staff towards her. Krystal immediately moved out of the way, and countered with an ice blast, the spray hitting Topaz's arms, freezing them in place as she held out the staff.

Topaz grunted angrily as she tried to move her arms, while Krystal moved in and twirled her staff above her head, swinging it to the left and right as her opponent ducked and weaved with her legs, in her frozen arms. Topaz found an opening soon after, and swept at Krystal's feet with one of her own, tripping her as the momentum brought Krystal's staff down hard on her frozen arms, cracking the ice.

Topaz then used her strength to break her arms out of the cracked ice, angrily swinging and holding out her freed staff, countering with her own ice blast, which hit Krystal's staff, freezing it, and making it unusable.

Krystal put her staff aside, not wanting to risk shattering the thing, as Topaz ran in and swung for her head. She promptly ducked down and grabbed Topaz's staff, pulling her down as she rolled back and kicked her off, making Topaz let go of the staff, as she quickly threw it aside.

Topaz got back up, and shook her hand out a bit as Krystal got back to her own feet, before quickly running up the side of the wall and springing off it with her right foot, extending her left foot in a kick as Krystal blocked it, spinning and attempting to backhand Topaz as she blocked and grabbed Krystal's wrist, attempting to toss her off to the side like she had with Fang. Krystal was much more nimble, however, as she flipped and landed on her feet behind Topaz, and quickly kneeled down, trying to sweep at Topaz's legs with her right leg, while Topaz quickly jumped to avoid this, soon landing near her staff as she picked it up and shot off a few more fireballs.

Krystal rolled out of the way near the wall where she kept her frozen staff, and picked it up just as Topaz got off another fireball, absorbing the energy into her staff as the heat made the ice around it melt, freeing the weapon.

Frustrated, Topaz growled, as she ran in and swung more violently with her staff, twirling it behind her back and up and over, slashing it down at Krystal, who soon brought her own staff up from below, clashing with it as sparks began to fly off the ends, the two struggling to gain dominance.

Fang was watching all of this, slowly backing up, and not realizing in his dazed state that he was walking into the arms of a Cyber standing near him. The metallic being reached out, and grabbed him in a split second.

"Ahhhh!" Fang yelled as he struggled. "Let go of me, tin can!"

"I have apprehended the male!" The Cyber spoke.

"Fang!" Krystal exclaimed, as Topaz took advantage of the distraction, and kicked her away, sending the blue vixen back against the wall.

"We'll have to make do with this one for now…I'll attend to the female later." Topaz spoke, as she walked over to the Cyber holding the struggling Fang.

Krystal got back up and ran towards Topaz and her unit, the blonde vixen watching her as she simply thumped her staff on the ground, causing it to quake where Krystal was, as an automobile-shaped Cyber cruiser floated along the alley. The Cyber with Fang got into it, along with Topaz, as Krystal decided to retreat for now, escaping the other Cybers.

Fang continued to struggle futilely in the arms of the strong Cyber, the cruiser flying away as Topaz looked down to the ground with a smile.

"Well…that was fun." The vixen grinned. "We'll have to do that again sometime." She then turned and sat down, her staff lying at her side, as the cruiser took off for the central base.

Krystal had found a sloping passageway during her escape in one of the alleys, sliding down into it as she discovered a series of constructed, underground tunnels, with rusted pieces of what looked like track under her feet, the air around her dark, but she could still see well in it thanks to her keen eyesight. The light on her staff from earlier was mainly to help Fang out…

"Fang…" she thought to herself. She then grunted and hit one of the walls, angrily. "What an idiot that guy is! Always getting into trouble! Always needing someone to hold his hand." Her eyes then widened, as a thought came over her. "Just like I used to be…"

She sighed, and shook her head gently, as she walked along the tunnels, just trying to figure out what she could do now. She reached into a pocket she kept for rations, and pulled out a sweet roll she had bought at a station nearby, taking a nibble of it. It was stale now, but it was better than nothing, as she also took a sip from a water canteen she kept handy. The fight with Topaz had worn her out a little, but she was recovering quickly.

Her feet splashed lightly in little puddles of water, stepping over pieces of broken track. The area apparently used to be a part of an underground transit system. Although, it looked like it hadn't been utilized for years, but that wasn't too surprising, considering the cruisers now out in the air.

After a few minutes of wandering down the tunnels, watching rats scurry along in certain spots, a pair of lights suddenly penetrated the darkness. Krystal soon ran for cover along one of the walls, hiding herself as best she could.

She discovered that the lights belonged to another cruiser, which was patrolling the underground tunnels, a single Cyber piloting it as it looked to its left and right, thinking its scanner picked up something around the spot.

She watched it zoom off towards a dead end, and prepared for it to come back in her direction, thinking to herself as she walked out, and readied her staff with both arms, holding out the bottom end from her at a distance, and began to run.

The Cruiser zoomed back towards her area, as she finally brought the staff down, using it to vault her up into the air, and land into the cockpit right next to the Cyber!

"Intruder! Intruder!" The Cyber exclaimed, as she brought up her staff and smacked it in the face with the end, holding herself up on the seat as she tried to kick the Cyber off the driver's side, only to have her foot caught in its hand as it threw her over to the back.

She landed on her back, looking up as the cyber rose from its seat, the cruiser still zooming along as it tromped over to where she was, holding out its hand as it prepared to let her have it with a stun ray, so it could take her back to the base with Fang.

Unfortunately for the Cyber, the cruiser drifted a little too high up as it was standing, crossing an archway in one of the tunnels, as the stone edge collided with the Cyber from behind, decapitating the being!

Krystal watched as the head flew away, scrambling over to the controls as the Cyber's body collapsed, quickly learning how to stop the vehicle, then letting it float in the middle of the tunnel.

She walked back over to the remains of the headless Cyber, lifting it up to a sitting position. She looked down into the area of the missing head, and found the remnants of what had been an organic spinal cord extending into the back.

"I knew I wasn't imagining things." She said to herself, recalling the time she detected organic thought patterns in these Cybers. She slowly pushed the body over the edge and onto the ground below, as she got back into the cockpit, looking over the controls.

"Doesn't seem too complicated." She got a hold of the steering handles, as she slowly brought up the thrusters, beginning to cruise gently along the tunnel system, looking for a way out, as she found a computer screen in the middle, complete with a map of where she was heading.

As all this was occurring, the same Cyber that grabbed Fang was dragging him into a large room. It held the cadet in place as a door opened, another Cyber tromping out and addressing the other Cybers that were standing guard, as well as Fang and his captor.

"All rise for our great leader, Xerxes. Creator, and supreme ruler of all Cybers."

The same mangled, half mechanical, male fox in the mobile chair soon appeared from behind the Cyber, slowly moving towards Fang as he held perfectly still.

"You must be quite surprised to see all this, to say the least" Xerxes spoke, his distorted voice echoing in the room. "Until today, you were happily unaware that this place existed, just like everyone else in the galaxy,. And that was the way we preferred it."

Fang breathed heavily as he looked away, only to have the Cyber send an electrical shock into his body, making him yell out in pain as it wrenched his head back to the front.

"Look at the creator when he is talking to you!" The Cyber snapped at him, as Xerxes floated a bit closer.

"I'm no idiot, young one." He growled. "I know there's another outsider running around, still causing us headaches. This female also seems to have abilities I've not seen for quite some time. So maybe you could humor me, and tell me who she is."

Fang breathed a bit harder, out of both fear and anger, but defiantly keeping quiet, as he looked Xerxes right in his horrid face.

The Cyber holding him soon gave him another electric shock, making him scream in pain as he moaned afterward.

"You will answer the creator!" The Cyber shouted to him, as he whimpered and closed his eyes.

Before Xerxes could interrogate Fang any further, another door swung open, as Topaz slowly walked into the room. "I have seen the female. We fought in the Southwest corner alleys just before we apprehended him."

Fang panted a bit as his body smoked some, while Xerxes looked on in interest. "Speak, child. What do you know about this female?"

Topaz smiled as she stood with her staff at her side. "She is Cerinian…like us, Father…"

Fang mouthed "Father?…" very confused now, as the Cyber held him in place, Xerxe's remaining eye going wide as he pondered this revelation.

Meanwhile, Krystal weaved her way along the passages of the abandoned underground transit, eventually finding an exit that sloped up towards the sky, which was still dark and polluted, but a nice change from the never-ending darkness of the underground.

She smiled a bit as she figured out the controls to the computerized map, slowly looking around, before finding a location that read "Central Collection Base, and Detention Center."

"Hang on, Fang…I'm coming for you." She smiled to herself, remembering the time when Fox saved her from a similar predicament. It was the first time in what felt like ages that she ever thought of Fox in a positive light, as she kicked up the thrusters, and pulled herself out through the exit, zooming into the sky towards her destination.


	4. Capture

Xerxes floated over to a Cyber sitting near a computer screen in another corner of the room where Fang was being held.

"What is the female's current position?"

The Cyber turned and spoke. "She seems to be airborne. A cruiser leaving the underground tunnel system has inexplicably changed its course for this detention center. I have attempted to contact the pilot, Cyber HK912, with no successful contact. There is a 93.3 chance that she has hijacked the cruiser."

"I see…" Xerxes smiled a little. "This Cerinian of ours is quite the resourceful one."

"I shall send a cruiser squadron of your choosing, Creator …" The Cyber spoke. "We shall cripple her engines, and apprehend her immediately."

Xerxes nodded slowly. "Good call…send unit 67-B."

The Cyber nodded "Affirmative."

Xerxes floated away as Topaz walked up to him. "Father, you should know that unit 67-B's programming hasn't been fine tuned yet…"

"I know that, Child." Xerxes smiled. "But this is the first Cerinian we have seen in years. It would be a shame to simply blow her out of the sky without so much as giving her a chance to prove her abilities. She obviously wants to come to where we are, and I say we let her, but first she needs to through a little test."

Topaz nodded slowly with a growing smile. "And if she does pass this test, and finds her way here…I'll be waiting for her." She twirled her staff a bit.

"I know you will, child." Xerxes smiles warmly, before floating off past Fang.

"Put the cadet into a holding cell."

"Affirmative." The Cyber spoke, as it lifted Fang, still weak from the shocks, and carried him off.

Krystal flew along over the landscape of the city, moving in the direction of the detention center, according to the map on her screen. Every so often, she'd see a Cyber or two in another cruiser, skillfully evading them by simply taking another route that still led to her destination.

After a while, it seemed like it would be smooth sailing, until she looked behind, coming out from a collection of buildings, seeing an entire group of Cruisers collecting behind her. She'd been spotted once more!

"You are outnumbered, Intruder!" The lead Cyber called out from a speaker on its cruiser. "Surrender now, or we shall be forced to take action, and bring your cruiser down!"

Krystal nodded slowly as she put her hands up, making it look like she was surrendering, as the lead ship slowly came up.

"Hold perfectly still, intruder." The Lead Cyber spoke, as it pulled up its ship for a closer look.

Krystal suddenly pulled out her staff once it was close enough, and nailed the leader in the face with a fireball!

"You're it!" She screamed, before jumping back into the pilot's seat and blasting off, zooming along the skyline as the rest of the unit followed in hot pursuit.

Krystal soared along in her cruiser, trying to lose the pursuing Cybers as she flew lower and went between a couple of buildings, holding steady as she flew through the alley, as two ships broke off from the group and stayed right on her, one floating above and behind the other, as the one below fired it's front blasters, forcing Krystal to move and evade as she flew upward, while the ship above fired its own blasters, the purple lasers nearly missing her as she saw another cruiser floating at the very end of the alley, facing her with its blasters ready. Krystal simply flew in its direction, before pulling up sharply just as it fired, making it hit the cruiser behind her as it was staying on her tail, the vehicle bursting into flames and colliding with the other ship before it could pull up!

Krystal flew quickly flew past the big fireball as the cruiser below got right on her tail, firing as two other ships joined it on either side. They fired at her as she picked up her blaster, shooting behind her as best she could, trying to figure something out.

She then got an idea, as she looked down at what liked a line of floating traffic, all of them cruisers belonging to other Cybers on patrol. It was risky, but she was sure she could pull it off, as she pulled down towards the traffic, facing straight ahead, as the other cruisers were moving left to right, right and left.

Krystal grinned to herself. "Fox would have kits if he knew what I was about to do…" She gripped the controls tightly, pulling up and down quickly as she weaved through the lines of cruisers, nearly missing one as she passed under another. The unit, blindly following her, wasn't faring so well, cruisers clipping and banging into other ships along the way. As Krystal finally panted and pulled out of the traffic line, one of the cruisers following her wandered into the path of another vehicle coming in from the right, smashing hard into the cruiser as the momentum carried them both into another cruiser, and then another, and another, setting off a chain reaction as the wrecked cruisers burst into flame, making it impossible for the remaining cruisers in the unit to find her through all the wreckage.

Krystal laughed to herself, partially in relief, partially in terror from narrowly avoiding death, but mostly in joy.

"Ohhhhh! I can't believe I did that!" She smiled and pulled her cruiser into a dark alley, slumping back in the seat as she was well hidden. "That's probably the gutsiest thing I have ever done as a pilot." She shook her head and sighed softly as she looked to the dark skies above, thinking of Fox. "I wish you could have been here to see that…I really do."

She then rose, sitting up once again, before checking her map and seeing that the base she was looking for was just around the block now.

"Well, that's good luck." She smirked to herself, before flying off on her quest to save Fang. She would have tried to get a telepathic link with him, but that would have just made him freak out wherever he was being held, she thought, and it would have brought on more unneeded attention.

As Krystal flew towards the base, Fang was being treated to some of Topaz's hospitality, his arms above him, and clamped down with the help of two large metal cylinders in the ceiling. The vixen took a bite of some old military rations with a spoon, and held a spoonful out to Fang's muzzle.

"Eat…" she gently spoke, with a grin on her face. "Go on…you must be famished after all that interrogating from Father."

"Why do you keep calling h-mmmmmph!" Topaz took advantage of Fang opening his mouth to speak, shoving a spoonful of old food into it as he choked it down, tilting his head back and making an awful face as he swallowed it.

"Why…why do you keep calling that pile of twisted metal your father?"

"Because he IS my father!" She yelled, giving him a hard backhand across the face. "Don't waste my time by asking me stupid questions, or else you won't be able to eat solid food for quite some time."

Fang whimpered a bit as he was struck, then managed to say something else. "Why is this all happening here…if your father is 'The Creator' then what was the point in him making all of these…things?" he looked around at the Cybers guarding the room.

Topaz slowly walked up to him with a serious look in her eyes. "I'll tell you only this much, cadet…it's your fault the Cybers exist…it's Corneria's fault, it's Andross' fault, it's EVERYONE'S fault!"

She walked away as she picked up her staff. "However, as they say, what goes around, comes around…your people are soon going to find that, like me, karma can be a real bitch!"

Fang just huffed and puffed in his restraints as he looked on, watching Topaz leave the room.

Krystal brought her cruiser up slowly, looking for an inconspicuous way into the Cylindrical, dome-topped base, looking around and finding what looked like some sort of back entrance for the maintenance Cybers. She looked for anyone who might have been coming in, and made her way to the entrance once the coast was clear.

She parked her cruiser on a platform near the entrance, and jumped down next to it, pushing the doors open as she made her way into the dimly lit hallway behind them.

The blue vixen found a doorway deeper into the hall, and ducked into it for a moment as she heard the tromping walk of a cyber in the distance. The being stopped for a moment, just past the door, looking to either of its sides as it thought it heard something.

Suddenly, sparks flew, as its entire mouthpiece blew out of its face, having been suddenly shot from behind by Krystal's blaster!

The cyber fell forward and hit the ground, as Krystal grabbed its arms and dragged it into the dark room. As she plopped it down behind a table, she looked over to see what looked like some old newspapers scattered in one corner.

She walked over and took some time to thumb through these old articles, thinking she'd probably find some clues as to what happened in this ruined city by doing so.

Krystal didn't have to look too long, as she came across a front page that read, "REFUGEE SCIENTIST AWARDED.", seeing the image of a male fox in a wheelchair, his body covered with cybernetic implants, being commended for his technological advances for the benefit of the Mondas system.

She read on through some other articles, before coming across something else, a headline that read, "PLAGUE DEVESTATES CITY…", and soon after discovering one that said, "XERXES: ' POLLUTION IS TO BLAME'", then one that said, "GOVERNMENT FUNDS XERXES' RESEARCH FOR CURE…"

Krystal furrowed her brow as she quickly went through even more papers. She stopped dead in her tracks as she fell upon one particular headline, "XERXES PROPOSES 'LIFE 2.0' PROJECT." She looked down into the page, and saw a diagram for a Cyber below the headline!

She hummed to herself, as she couldn't find any more headlines from there, putting the papers aside and resuming her quest to locate Fang, and free him.

The halls were quiet now as she made her way out of the room; moving down stealthily as she saw an elevator that had just closed, and began to pull up. Luckily it was fairly open elevator shaft, so she took advantage, running over as it began to rise, and leaping up, softly grabbing the edges of one side as she pulled herself up and under the elevator, pressing her arms and legs hard against the sides as she kept herself from falling.

She waited until it passed a door a little higher up, and quickly dropped down, grabbing onto the doorway tightly, and gaining her balance, before slowly pushing her claws in, and gently parting the elevator doors with her added strength, slipping between them.

Again, she noticed a sparseness of Cybers, even on the higher floor, only having to avoid detection every so often. Something about it all just didn't seem right to Krystal, as she slowly pressed ahead, still determined.

She walked slowly along, finding her way into what was once a gymnasium, the floor smooth under her feet as she sensed something, taking out her staff and holding it to her side as she strolled.

Slowly, a figure walked out behind her at a distance, and waved. "Hello again."

Krystal immediately turned, discovering Topaz watching her from behind, her staff also at her side as she twirled it idly, back and forth. "You just continue to amaze me, finding your way into this place."

The blue vixen furrowed her brow once more, and decided to address something that had been nagging at her. "Where did you get that staff?"

Topaz's smile faded just a little. "From my mother. She taught me everything about using it before she died." She looked up to Krystal. "See, she was testing out a prototype for the cruisers we have now, for my father, before it suddenly ripped a fuel line, and exploded…" she sighed. "Oh well…at least she died for the cause."

Krystal just looked on at her. "And what cause is that, exactly?"

Topaz looked to Krystal with a steely resolve in her eyes. "To end all the foolish fighting that ruined us. To stop the constant warmongering among the outside worlds that destroyed Cerinia, and nearly destroyed the people of the Mondas system."

"End all fighting, eh?" Krystal almost scoffed. "From where I sit, this seems to be an odd way to end war forever."

Topaz scowled. "All those who stand between our goals must be eliminated. All the issues that have started wars, class, race, even sex in some worlds, will be a memory once all goes to plan. All shall be Cyber, and those who stand against the Cybers will be, as they say, deleted."

Krystal tilted her head. "If that's true, then why aren't you a Cyber like the rest of them."

Topaz smiled some. "Because father wouldn't hear of it."

"Father?" Her eyes widened as she remembered the newspapers. "You mean, Xerxes? He's your father?"

Topaz had a surprised look on her face as she heard this. "You know your history of this place already." She then pointed her staff at Krystal. "Perhaps you know a little bit too much now."

Krystal watched as a fireball began to form on the tip of the blonde vixen's staff. "I know father's orders were to capture you, but I think I might do well to stop that brain of yours from running…father will be sad to see another Cerinian dead, but I think he'll forgive me once I tell him the circumstances."

Krystal immediately leapt out of the way as Topaz fired the shot from her staff, missing as Krystal countered with a fireball of her own. Topaz turned and twirled her staff, starting her ice magic as the fireball hit her staff, turning it into an ice ball and throwing it at Krystal as she ran towards her.

Krystal swung and shattered the ice ball into pieces as she twirled and spun in with her staff, yelling out as she clashed with Topaz, pushing her back into the hall as she sprung off one of the walls, swinging her staff and knocking hers away as she kicked the blonde vixen back.

Topaz growled and summoned more fire magic, tapping her staff on the ground as a wall of fire came up between the two, a trick that Krystal had never seen before, as Topaz ran off.

Krystal immediately let out a spray of her ice magic…it took a minute, but she finally cooled down the fire enough that she could jump through it, in pursuit of Topaz. Topaz was waiting for her just behind a doorway, suddenly jumping out and sweeping at her feet with her staff, making Krystal fall on her front as she raised her staff and brought it down hard.

The blue vixen rolled out of the way as it crashed into the tiles below, jumping up and elbowing Topaz in the head as she grunted and fell back, before coming back and twirling her staff, planting it in the ground and launching at her with a jump kick, getting past Krystal as she swung at her, and kicking her hard in the chest.

Krystal grunted and fell to her back, rolling backwards and getting on her feet as she ran towards a larger looking room, with Topaz in pursuit. She pretended to slip and fall over, before aiming her staff behind her, and catching Topaz's feet in an ice blast, covering them in a very thick sheet of ice as Topaz grunted and growled, trying the chip away at the ice with her staff, while Krystal ran into the larger room.

The large, circular room was covered in blue painted metal, finding a switch at the wall…it was a huge service elevator, she discovered! She also found a display on the right…since no organic prisoners had been held there for some time, most of the floors read "ALL CELLS EMPTY" until she got up to the 27th floor, where it read, "87 CELLS empty."

"He must be on this floor." She deducted with a smile, as she heard Topaz freeing her feet with a carefully placed fire blast from her staff. Krystal quickly hit the button for the 27th floor, as Topaz yelled out and ran for the elevator as it began to go up, sliding in through the doorway and onto the floor smoothly, just before the platform went past it completely.

"Oh no…" she smiled. "You're not getting rid of me that easily." She then yelled and swung her staff for Krystal, the elevator room having a lot of space, as Krystal jumped and landed on the staff, bringing it onto the ground as she swung her own staff, smacking Topaz across the face with the end as she back flipped off the staff soon after.

Topaz felt something on her face as she touched it. Krystal had hit her so hard, that she had actually cut her cheek slightly. Topaz looked at the blood on her fingers, and frowned at the blue vixen.

"All right, bitch.." she growled. "You wanna end the kid games? I'm happy to oblige." She then placed a hand on the top of her staff, while Krystal stood in her fighting position. Topaz then introduced another technique she had never seen done before, running her fingers down the staff as it began to glow blue…

"Spirit fury!" She yelled, as she twirled her staff, the entire weapon now covered in the unearthly blue glow. Krystal stood, absolutely dumbfounded now, as she tried shooting off another fireball from her staff. Topaz responded with a slash from her glowing staff, cleaving the ball in two! The divided fireball flew off in two different directions, as Topaz launched herself at Krystal, slashing at her as she ducked, and cut a beam in half nearby instead.

All Krystal could do now was duck and dodge as best she could; every one of her magic attacks not working now. At one point she even jumped up and smashed her staff into the floor of the elevator, slowly rising, still, as she made it quake hard, while Topaz held her glowing staff to the ground, enduring the power of it as best she could.

As this happened, Krystal noticed that Topaz was starting to breathe hard, the glow on her staff beginning to dissipate. She was clearly over-exerting herself with this technique, and was paying the price, physically.

Krystal took advantage of this as she launched another fireball from her staff, making Topaz slash and cleave it apart as Krystal rolled in and swung her staff, knocking Topaz's away from her hand with no harm done to her.

The Staff flew over to the side as the elevator moved, Krystal dropping her staff as she ran in to finish Topaz off hand to hand, letting her have it with a spinning back kick, nailing her in the chest as Topaz panted and fell back, but held her ground, weakly trying to block Krystal as she came in with a flurry of kicks, preferring her legs over her fists as she kicked her side, then went for her head with a high kick. The block from Topaz opened up her abdomen, as Krystal finally came out with a punch, getting her in the stomach as she grunted and hunched over slightly.

They were almost on the 27th floor now, as Topaz stupidly tried to throw herself on Krystal as a last ditch effort, rearing back for a big move as Krystal simply spun, and got her hard in the jaw with a backhand, not completely unlike the backhand Topaz gave Fang before she left…Topaz groaned as she finally fell forward, collapsing and clutching at herself as she moaned. Krystal picked up her staff, twirling it some as the elevator finally stopped.

"Well…looks like the real bitch just got a bit of much-needed discipline." Krystal sneered, opening the door as she entered the row of empty cells.

Fang hung on the restraints over his arms; his head slumped over some as he rested, before suddenly being jolted from his sleep by a fireball shooting off the lock to his cell.

Krystal ran inside as Fang looked up, groggy, still trying to focus his currently blurry eyesight.

"Aren't you a little short for a Cyber?" He mumbled incoherently.

"Fang…" Krystal sighed and giggled a bit, as she shot off his restraints with a couple of well-placed blasts from her pistol. Fang slumped down into her arms as she held him up, helping him get his legs as she ran out with him.

"Hang on, cadet." Krystal smiled. "We'll be out of this place in no t-"

She was soon interrupted by the sight of Xerxes now floating at the end of another hallway, units of Cybers tromping out in front of the two and behind them, having hidden inside the other cells before she came up.

"Fellow Cerinian…" Xerxes smiled as he floated closer, Cybers parting for him so he could get a better look, while Topaz also walked onto the scene, still recovering from the fight. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Krystal just held still as Xerxes smiled, coughing a little before righting himself in his chair. "I'm afraid you'll have to come with me now…I can imagine you must have a million questions to ask me, and I want the time to discuss them all with you."

"Do as the creator says." A cyber spoke, pointing a finger in the direction Xerxes was headed, as Krystal slowly nodded, and walked off. She didn't really want to leave this place immediately, anyway…not until she got a few more answers.


	5. Revelations

Krystal carried the still groggy Fang, who was slowly recovering from hanging by the restraints, his arm over her shoulders, as the Cybers lead them both into a room filled with computer screens and keyboards. It was obviously some sort of command center in the base, as Xerxes floated in his chair over next to a rather large screen in the center, the recovering Topaz walking over and adjusting the respirators for her father, scowling at the blue vixen every so often.

"Professor Xerxes, I presume." Krystal spoke as everyone assembled in the room, setting Fang on a chair near her.

"How on earth did you know th-" Xerxes began to ask, before remembering something, as he turned his head to Topaz. "I thought I told you to throw away those old newspapers."

"I'm sorry father." Topaz sighed. "It must have slipped my mind again."

"No matter." He put up his hand and closed his eyes, before opening them to Krystal once more. "Since you read those papers, then you must know that Topaz and I are refugees of Cerinia's destruction, just as you are… Xerxes pursed what was left of his lips, curiously. "What is your name?"

"Krystal." The vixen responded simply.

Xerxes nodded slowly. "What do you know of Cerinia's destruction, Krystal?"

Krystal shrugged. "Not much really. I've been looking for answers for a while."

Xerxes nodded again. "I do not know that much either…all I remember was seeing ships from Andross' personal fleet as I escaped with my wife and daughter to Mondas.

"So it WAS Andross." Krystal spoke softly to herself, before looking to Xerxes' mutilated form. "Is that how you ended up with all of the implants? Were you injured?"

"Oh no…" Xerxes shook his head. "I've had these for many years now." He rubbed his metallic chest. "You see, I was always a technological whiz since my younger days, a prodigy according to some. But some number of years ago, I was stricken with a terrible genetic disease, one that destroyed most of the muscles and nerves in my body. The doctors were finally able to stop it from killing me, but I ended up having to use most of my own technology to replace all of the body parts they had to amputate."

Xerxes floated over to a window and looked out towards the sky. "It wasn't long after, that Andross attacked and destroyed our world. Luckily, we found a new purpose here. See, this particular planet in the Mondas system was very distrusting of the outside world. They even had a device cloaking their planet, making it look dead to other planets, when in fact it was very much alive."

Krystal tilted her head a bit as Xerxes continued. "They welcomed me once I told them what happened to Cerinia, and I shared much of my technology with them."

"And then the plague came…" Krystal said, ominously.

Xerxes nodded as Topaz looked on with her staff. "Yes. All that pollution in the name of quick technological advancement caught up with them. I successfully inoculated Topaz and myself against it, but very few others were as lucky. This never-ending city was soon on its knees, begging me to find some way to help them…"

"Then you chose to rob them all of their lives…" Krystal stated boldly.

"I SAVED them!" Xerxes growled, while Topaz nodded on. "I rescued them from certain death, and eventual extinction. Their brains are all still here, inside of these impressive steel structures. Never aging…never decaying…never dying!"

Xerxes floated over to one of his Cybers, rubbing the steel of its chest gently. "And now we shall spread the word across the galaxy once the time is right, the word to end all war, and destruction, to end the conflicts between worlds that spilled over into ours, that destroyed Cerinia, and scared the people of the Mondas system into slowly, and unknowingly killing themselves!"

Krystal shook her head. "No! No matter what may have happened in the past, this is not the way to react to it all! By robbing other people of their lives, and turning them into mindless robots under a single, tyrannical rule. Corneria will never allow you to do it!"

Xerxes shook his head slowly. "I was hoping you might at least have some sympathy for our cause, Krsytal, being a Cerinian and all. But even Corneria won't be able to stop us once we get rolling…and you, my friends, will not be leaving this planet to warn anyone!" He looked to his Cybers. "Delete them!"

"Delete…Delete…Delete!" The Cybers began to chant together, moving towards Krystal and Fang as she looked around, wondering what to do as Topaz looked down at them both, grinning widely as she prepared for her rival to die.

It was then that Fang suddenly jumped up from the chair, grabbing one of Krystal's guns and firing, taking one Cyber down!

"One good turn deserves another, Xerxes old boy!" He yelled out. He had known about the Cybers waiting for Krystal, and had pretty much been playing possum the entire time after she found him.

Topaz grunted as she held out her staff, shooting off a fireball as Krystal quickly pulled Fang aside, the fireball hitting another Cyber in the face instead!

"Watch where you're aiming that!" Xerxes scolded his daughter, as Fang ran up to another Cyber, a new sense of confidence in him now as he smashed it across the face with the butt of his gun, blowing out it's mouth as he kicked at another in the chest, Krystal impressed with this new display from the Coyote, as she spun and held out her staff, bending backwards as she spun, and smacking multiple Cybers across the face with her weapon.

The Cybers refrained from firing their lasers, not wanting to hit their leader by accident, as they simply tried to grab the two intruders, and off them with their own strong hands. Fang grabbed one Cyber from behind, and fired at the left side of its face, as he brought the rest of it's head down onto his metal knee, smashing its face in deeply as it sparked and rolled onto its back, not moving, as he spun and fired at another one, nailing it right between the eyes.

Krystal jumped up onto the shoulders of one Cyber, confusing it with her feet as she pulled out another pistol, firing as she hit a few more Cybers right in the mouth from her higher position. Afterward she fell behind the Cyber she stood on, and used her strong legs to hook around its head from behind, and flip it over, rolling to a sitting position on its chest as she put her pistol away and smashed its face in with the end of her staff.

"Out of the way!" Topaz shouted to a Cyber nearby, knocking it aside with her staff as she rushed down to engage Krystal and Fang once more, swinging her staff at Fang as he jumped back, the staff missing his left side as she then swung for his right side, jumping out of the way again as he grunted and fired his pistol, Topaz ducking the laser and swinging her staff for his head, before another staff caught on it.

"Fang, find a way out of here!" Krystal barked, as Fang quickly nodded and ran towards another Cyber, jumping up and kicking it in the chest with his right foot, running purely off adrenaline now as he managed to shoot away some of the enemies, escaping through a chute in one corner, many Cybers running out of the door in pursuit.

Topaz growled as she twirled her staff while it still clashed with the other, throwing Krystal's off to the side as she yelled and spun with hard roundhouse kick, smacking Krystal hard in the face as she fell to her side. She reached up and felt blood on her cheek.

"Ha! How do YOU like it?" Topaz grinned, before holding out her staff, and trying to freeze Krystal with an ice blast. Krystal rolled out of the way as the floor froze up instead, all over the room, Cybers beginning to slip on the ice as she got back up and got her footing on the slippery surface, using her foot paws and staff to slide towards Topaz, who had the same idea, skating almost on her feet as the two sailed towards each other.

Topaz made a swing for Krystal's head with both her arms, stumbling a bit on the ice as Krystal ducked and slid over behind Topaz on her back, using both her arms in that split second to bring up her staff and smack Topaz on her backside, making her fall on her front and slide over to the other side as she grunted, while Krystal got back onto her feet and tried to get a running start for another slide towards her opponent.

Unfortunately, Krystal was never the best with slippery surfaces, as she could remember from one time, when Fox took her to a skating rink. She soon stumbled unexpectedly, and fell right onto her back and rear, sailing right towards Topaz as she grinned and slid out to meet her, bringing her staff down and catching Krystal's throat on the end, stopping her sliding.

"I've got you…" she grinned. "I've finally got you!" She brought up her hand over the end of the staff opposite to the end pointed at her throat, getting ready to deliver a fatal blow to her windpipe!

Krystal's eyes were wide open, thinking this was indeed the end, before the wall suddenly exploded behind the two, throwing Topaz backward and making her fall hard on the back of her head, as it scattered the remaining Cybers, while Xerxes ducked and covered himself with his arms.

The blue vixen looked up as Fang floated down towards her, in the same cruiser that Krystal stole earlier. "Get in!"

Krystal nodded as she quickly hopped into the passenger's side of the cruiser, while Fang began to pull away from the room.

"It's a good thing you parked this cruiser where you did." Fang smiled as he brought up the thrusters. "I went through another chute, and ended up on the outside, plummeting to what I was sure would be my death, before I landed right in the driver's seat! Great luck, huh?"

Krystal giggled a bit and nodded. "Just keep bringing up those thrusters, so we can get the hell out of here!"

"Will do!" Fang grinned, before finally blasting off; avoiding all futile blasts from any Cybers nearby as the cruiser finally left the scene.

"All right…" Xerxes called out to his crew as Topaz got up and melted the icy floor with a blast of fire energy. "Once again these two troublemakers have proven to us how crafty they can be." He scowled. "Take a few moments to regroup, and re-organize, then track them down."

"Yes sir." One of the Cyber unit leaders spoke, before helping to collect the pieces of its fallen comrades, and walking off.

"I'll start tracking them now…" Topaz spoke as she walked off. "I'm gonna head to the sector 9 computer lab. It's the closest one."

Xerxes held up his hand. "Stay away from that one, child. The maintenance Cybers are trying to fix a coolant leak down there."

Topaz tilted her head. "Again? I thought they fixed that last week?'

Xerxes shook his head. "I'm sorry child, but that sector's always been a problem for the climate control system."

Topaz nodded slowly. "Very well…I'll head over to sector 4 then."

She walked off, as Xerxes watched her closely…

Fang had brought the cruiser into a patch of thick fog that had come over one part of the city, having just been hit with a brief shower of acid rain, that had now ended, providing some good cover, before finding the top of a building and landing.

"Ok, I think we've lost them for now." He said, as Krystal nodded and climbed out.

"Good. Let's find shelter for the time being, then. Both of us have been through a lot today." She walked to a door on the roof, and forced it open with her staff.

"Oh, you're damn right about that." Fang smiled, as he walked in with her. As far as he was concerned, even though he was roughed up a bit, it was the most excitement he'd had in his life since joining the academy.

Krystal walked down into what had once been an apartment complex, finding the nearest open door into a room, going inside and looking to her right and left, as Fang followed soon after.

The room was mostly empty, though some of the chairs, and couch, still remained. Krystal fanned her face a bit with her paw as she felt the humidity. "Wish we could get the air conditioning back up."

"Who says we can't." Fang said, as he walked over and started fiddling with the AC control in the window, prying off the cover as he twisted and reworked some wires, Krystal watching curiously, as he finally got the device to activate, filling the room quickly with cool air.

"How'd you do that?" Krystal chuckled some, smiling to Fang.

"It's not that difficult…not for me anyway." Fang grinned as he sat. "They're not too different from the moisture evaporators back on the desert. You just have to know how they can be wired, and re-wired, when necessary."

Krystal nodded gently as she sat back on the couch, stretching as she removed her footwear. "Is that where you lived all your life, before the academy?"

Fang nodded "Yeah, pretty much." He pulled out his canteen, and unscrewed the top, getting ready to take a sip, before Krystal noticed it.

"Oh good…" she reached out and took it from him. "If you'll excuse me, I'm getting low on water."

Fang gasped and held out his hands as she took a sip. "No wait! That's not w-"

Krystal's eyes went wide, as she spewed the liquid back out before he could finish his sentence.

Fang just watched her. "Uhhhhh yeah…see, that's a special drink I brought from home…it's called 'Red Cactus'…" he grinned sheepishly as Krystal licked her lips and looked at the canteen curiously, taking another little sip.

"Yeah, drink it slowly…" Fang chuckled. "The stuff does kind of grab you by the…" he looked down at his crotch, and stopped his sentence, blushing. "…never mind."

Krystal let out a satisfied "Mmmmm…" as she finished her slow sip, handing the canteen back to Fang as she giggled. "It's not exactly in keeping with protocol…but I'm glad in this instance that you don't play by all the rules, Fang." She grinned and reached into her rations pocket. "Bit of stale pastry?"

"Please!" Fang grinned, before munching a piece of it and washing it down with some more of the Red Cactus, handing the canteen back to Krystal as she downed another sip.

Time passed, as the strong drink began to affect them, Fang in particular.

"Fang, Fang, Fang…" Krystal muttered to herself as she handed the canteen back, smiling to the Coyote and giggling. "What kind of name is 'Fang' anyway?"

Fang just shrugged. "Eh, it's just been my nickname since I was a kid. It's stuck with me."

Krystal furrowed her brow. "What's your real name then?"

"Damned if I know…" Fang chuckled a bit, rather light headed from the drink as he took another sip. "I've never even met my parents."

"You haven't?" Krystal asked, her jaw dropping.

"Uh-uh" Fang shook his head as he gripped his canteen, the liquor bringing his true feelings around, as he slightly slurred his speech. "From the looks of things, my father was probably one of those dead-beats who dumped a girl once he got her knocked up. And my mother didn't want me at all, I know that, because whoever she is, she left me out in the middle of a sand dune, no water, no milk, no nothing, not even a damned kiss goodbye…if it wasn't for that passing family of camels, I would have died right there."

"Oh my god…" Krystal held a paw to her chest as he took one last sip. "Where did you grow up?"

Fang shrugged again. "I just kinda floated from foster home, to foster home, until I got too old to be hanging out in those places. Luckily, this moisture farmer came along, and took me in as a house servant. It was an ok life, but like I said, the pay was lousy, among other things. I just decided I needed something a little different in my life…that was when I applied for the academy, and, miracle of miracles, they accepted me."

Krystal looked on to Fang sadly, as the Coyote settled into the chair he was sitting in, muttering incoherently to himself as she got up and stroked his head, letting him fall asleep slowly.

"I judged you too harshly…" she sighed, watching as he snoozed, before settling back into the couch. "I thought you were just another stupid male out to prove himself to his buddies…but I guess we have a little more in common than I thought." She smiled a bit, looking to her new friend and fellow orphan, before drifting off to sleep with him.

Meanwhile, Topaz slowly walked out of a room, cleaning the cut on her cheek, as she finally came across one of maintenance Cybers. She never found too many during her time on the base, since they were all over the place and moved quickly, as she addressed the machine.

"You…I'd like to stay in touch with you, and the others in maintenance for a while. Make sure you tell me when that coolant leak is finally fixed in the sector 9 computer lab."

The cyber's mouth lit up. "There is no coolant leak."

Topaz furrowed her brow. "What? You fixed it already?"

The Cyber spoke once more. "Sector 9's climate control is in perfect working order, and has been for quite some time. Good day, daughter of the creator."

Topaz shook her head slowly as the Cyber tromped off, before making her way up to sector 9, taking the elevator.

The doors to the elevator opened, as Topaz stepped out, the patrolling Cybers naturally letting her go wherever she wished, as she found the sector 9 computer lab, confirming what the Cyber had told her as nothing seemed to be wrong with the area at all.

She walked into the room, not finding anything different about it from the other computer labs, as she sat at one of the seats, looking to her left and right as she typed away on a keyboard in front of her.

A few moments later, she looked over, and saw something odd on one of the walls, a discolored spot on the metal. Her keen eyes noticed it almost immediately, as she crept over to the part of the wall where this spot was, and began to try and push it with her fingers.

Nothing was happening, as she pushed again, and rubber her thumbs over the spot in circles…a slot suddenly opened on the spot afterward, and spit something out.

Topaz caught it in her paw before it hit the floor…the object was an unlabeled data disc!

She walked over to the nearest computer, and placed the disk into its drive, taking a look at the screen as its secrets were slowly revealed. And what secrets they seemed to be, as Topaz's eyes grew wider and wider with each sentence she read.

The blonde vixen shook her head quickly. "This can't be right…it can't be!." She started to print out all the images and info she saw on the screen, getting ready to run off with it all once it finished.

At this point, a single image now sat on the computer screen, that of a tiny mechanical device, with the label, "X-B7 VIRUS MODULE"…


	6. Turncoat

Krystal stirred a bit as she woke up on the couch. The air conditioner was still running in the background, as she got up and yawned, stretching before rising and walking over to Fang, still slumped over and asleep in the chair, holding his canteen of Red Cactus.

"Hey…" she spoke softly, tapping him on the shoulder. "Time to get up."

Fang hummed and opened his eyes, squinting a bit as he sat up, and groaned some, rubbing his head gently.

Krystal giggled a bit. "Too much of a good thing?" she looked to his canteen.

Fang chuckled and got up slowly, grunting. "Don't worry about me, Krystal…I've lived through much worse benders than this one, believe me."

Krystal smiled and nodded, offering a sip of her water as Fang obliged her, getting up as he sipped the water down. "We'd better go quickly. Somewhere, they're holding my ship, which is hopefully still in one piece. If we find that, we can find a way out of here, and warn everyone."

Fang tilted his head. "But there must be thousands of hangars in a place like this. How are we gonna learn where your ship is being held?"

Krystal smiled as she looked to the roof. "The cruiser, of course…it has directions to every part of this town, including all of the computer labs. They all seem to use the same basic programming, so there must be an up to date hanger listing somewhere."

"Sounds like a plan." Fang grinned as he adjusted his rumpled uniform. He gathered his stuff, and headed out with her, walking back up to the parked cruiser.

"Krystal…" Fang started to speak as he arranged his equipment. "I'm sorry if I haven't exactly been an ideal partner so far."

Krystal smiled. "That's ok Fang. You're just a rookie right now. But I think you're already getting better."

Fang nodded. "Well, it's not just that…I wasn't sure how I'd be able to work with you, knowing that you were the one who hurt the guy I respect most in this galaxy."

She furrowed her brow as she looked at Fang, knowing he was talking about Fox. "Well…frankly Fang, he didn't seem too hurt when he broke it off with me."

The cadet nodded softly as he got into the cruiser. "I've never told anyone about this…but one time I was walking back to the locker room after a training session, to wash off and everything. I got there ahead of every other guy, I walked in, and there was Fox, sitting on one of the benches. He couldn't see me from where I was, but I could see, and hear him. He was holding a picture of what I think was you in one hand, and I saw a tear come down his cheek…I only heard him say one thing before he finally left…'What the hell did I do?'"

Krystal's eyes widened a bit. "Really now…that's the first I've ever heard of him being like that. I mean, when I was going out with him, he seemed to be rather fond of me, but I had a hard time sensing or knowing how he really felt, deep down."

Fang nodded some. "Well, if I were you, I'd go and have a little talk with the guy if we manage to get out of here, 'cause this has really been haunting him. He tries not to show it, but it is."

Krystal nodded. "You're right, I should…" She then smiled. "And what's all this 'if' business? We ARE going to escape this planet, cadet."

Fang grinned and nodded as Krystal took the controls, bringing the thrusters up, as the cruiser once again took off, looking for the nearest destination with a computer lab.

Topaz walked and walked to where her father was, a determined look in her eyes as Cybers patrolled the hallways, nodding to her in recognition as she passed them. She tried to ignore them as best she could, as she headed to the room where Xerxes was studying.

"Yes…" Xerxes spoke to himself, as he ran his hand along an interesting diagram. "We're just about ready."

His quiet contemplation was soon interrupted by Topaz marching in, placing a thick book of printed pages on his desk as she leaned in.

"What is the meaning of all this?" She said aloud, as Xerxes turned and furrowed his brow, opening the book and flipping through the pages, before suddenly gasping in shock. She had found his secret personal logs, all of them!

"Where did you find this?" He growled.

Topaz lowered her gaze. "In the sector 9 computer lab…"

"I told you not to go down there!" He yelled. "I told you there was a coolant leak!"

"Just like you said to the people on this planet that their plague was caused by pollution!..." She pointed to a page that showed a device with an engineered virus inside, designed for delivery into the city water supply.

"And when you said you designed the Cybers AFTER the plague!" She motioned to logs mentioning the Life 2.0 project already in progress secretly, on a dead planet close to Cerinia, as well as with records of him capturing Vagrants and homeless Cerinians for his experiments.

"And then, there's Cerinia's destruction, father…" she pointed to an entry about his new Cybers luring some ships from Andross' fleet onto the dead planet with a special beacon, and then hijacking them, 'deleting' all aboard, and re-programming the ships to their control. The entry was days before the destruction of their home world. "Andross had nothing to do with it…did he?"

Xerxes shook his head angrily. "You don't understand, child!" the lies peeled away right there. "They found out about my experiments! They were going to petition the high council, and have me expelled from their world! They were going to shut down my lab, and track down my new children!" He motioned to the Cybers in the room, before looking back to Topaz. "They had no interest in my vision at all…they had to be deleted! For the good of the future!"

Topaz nodded slowly as she flipped through some more pages. "Then you sent your Cybers back into hiding, and had them destroy all the ships before Andross could find out exactly what happened. Then you landed us on the Mondas system, won the people's trust, then used your virus to make them desperate for a way out of their misery…all so you could create more of your…children." She looked around at the Cybers, looking quite distressed.

Xerxes sighed and shook his head again, slowly. "You're too much like your mother…"

Topaz's eyes grew wide. "What is that supposed to mean?" She nearly dropped the book, not having read all of it yet.

Xerxes scowled. "You might as well know it now…the real cause of your mother's death." Topaz stayed dead silent. "She was, like you, much too nosy. She stumbled upon my personal logs, just as you did. And like you, she discovered the truth about Cerinia."

He sighed and looked her right in the eyes. "She said right there, that she wanted nothing to do with me anymore. She ran off, stole a cruiser, and intended to escape on a ship we kept nearby. She wanted to take you with her, and warn everyone in the galaxy about what I'd been up to…I couldn't let that happen."

He remembered the moment, which Topaz had not seen in person…his wife, desperately trying to outrun a squadron of Cybers behind her in their own cruisers, opening fire, and taking her down in a powerful blaze that illuminated the sky.

Topaz went into shock as she realized the bottom line of what he saying.

"You killed her…You killed her…" she breathed heavily, before flying into a rage! She flung herself at her father, a Cyber restraining her from nearby as she flailed her arms at him!

"YOU KILLED HEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR!" She screamed, half angrily, half mournfully. "YOU BASTARD…YOU HEARTLESS, MURDERING BASTARD!" Tears quickly rushed down her face as she flailed, the Cyber throwing her to the ground, as she looked down and sobbed openly, knowing the truth. She was murdered, and Topaz was conned into thinking it was an accident.

"She loved you…" she whimpered as she wept. "I could sense it, she loved you…even after you became a machine…didn't you ever love her?"

Xerxes looked on sternly. "Love is irrelevant."

Topaz stood up and shouted, "It is to me!…The love that I thought existed between you and I, and you and my mother…if it's not relevant to you, then you're not my father anymore!"

Xerxes sighed. "Then, I'm sorry child…but you're no longer compatible…"

He motioned to the group of Cybers already in the room, Topaz standing back and wiping away her last tear. The lead Cyber walked up and addressed her.

"You have turned your back on our ideals, and the vision of our great creator, Xerxes." Topaz looked right at the machine as she reached for the dagger she stole from Krystal earlier. The Cyber continued, "And for this most grievous of errors, you shall perish under maximum deletion."

Topaz waited for the right moment, and threw the dagger. The weapon pierced right through the Cyber's mouth!

"Gyaaahhhhhhhhhh!" The Cyber howled, as she quickly sprung into action, leaping into the air and bringing her staff hard onto the ground. The ground shook hard around the Cybers as they stumbled, while Topaz leapt once again, smacking one Cyber across the face with her staff as she swung it off to the right, before spinning and kicking another Cyber behind her.

Another cyber made a grab for her, as she quickly jumped onto its left shoulder with her left foot, springing off and kicking it hard in the back of the head with her right foot, sending it onto its stomach as she lunged and thrust her staff's end at the face of one Cyber, smashing it in before she turned back and pinned the downed Cyber under her right foot. She thrust her staff again hard, hitting it in the back of its head with her bottom end, crunching its face into the metal floor before it could react.

She back flipped over to another part of the room, and worked up some fire magic, striking her staff on the ground, and creating a firewall between her and the remaining Cybers.

She made a run for one of the windows, before one other Cyber not behind the wall lunged for her. She quickly grabbed its right wrist, pinning the left against the wall with her staff end, before slowly turning the outstretched hand back to the Cyber's own face. She knew just how this thing was wired, as she twisted its wrist a bit, making its blaster discharge! The shot hit the Cyber right in the mouth as it howled and fell, the body sparking as she sensed some cruisers nearby, and dove right out the window!

"Damn it all!" Xerxes pounded his chair, floating over to the window and watching.

Topaz flew right through the breeze as she zoomed down the side of the building. A cruiser was right below her, as she trusted her instincts, and held out her staff, pointing it downward as she took aim…

The cruiser flew by, carrying three Cybers, before one looked up, and saw a fireball heading right towards its head! The impact of the fireball nearly smashed its whole head in, as it fell over limply and smoked, the other two taking notice, one in the driver's seat, and the other in the back with its fallen comrade.

Topaz landed hard right in the back, bending her knees. She then rose and caught the second passenger off guard with a spinning staff blow across the face, making it fall to the right side edge as its momentum made it tumble overboard.

The Driver reached back to shoot her with an outstretched hand, making her duck as it got the shot off. She then got up and let the machine have it with an ice blast, freezing much of its upper body. Its legs kicked wildly, before she ran in and yelled, twirling her staff above her head, and then bringing it down across the right of the Cyber's head, shattering it into pieces!

She pushed the Cyber's body over the edge, as she got into the seat and kicked up the thruster quickly, blasting off and vanishing.

Xerxes growled as he looked over to one of the surviving Cybers. "She knows too well how to defend herself, and avoid detection." He floated back over to the diagrams and looked back to the Cyber. "Bring units to hangars 667 to 709. Bring as many as you can spare!" He looked at the diagram, which seemed to be the blueprints of a huge starship. "We're going to complete construction and preparations as quickly as possible, so that we may finally proceed with our grand plan!"

"Yes sir." The Cyber nodded, before tromping off with the others.

Topaz flew along quickly in the cruiser, keeping her eyes locked on the sky ahead, and the map on the computer.

"I hope they'll listen to me…" She thought to herself. "They're the only ones who can help me to stop this madness, now…"

Krystal and Fang had landed on the top of another building, one that seemed quite empty, and seemed to have a computer lab inside. Krystal took out her staff and kept it at the ready, as Fang slowly peered over the side. He saw something odd, as he walked over and tugged on Krystal's suit.

"Come and take a look at this…"

Krystal tilted her head as she walked over to the edge of the building, looking down. There was a line of Cybers on the street, many units assembling, as they began to march off together. They both looked further away, seeing this line of Cybers merge with an even bigger line, all of them seeming to march towards one area.

"What in the hell are they doing?" Fang scratched his head.

"I don't know." Krystal shrugged, before turning for the door into the building itself. "But whatever it is, it means we should try to find my ship ASAP."

Fang nodded and walked to the door with her, readying his blaster.

Krystal gently opened the door, bringing light into the very dark corridors below. She softly made her way down the stairs, Fang following close behind, as the fairly open hallways of the building were damp and rusted, cables hanging in some spots, as many metal doors were broken off their hinges.

"You sure there's a computer lab in here?" Fang asked Krystal, cocking an eyebrow. "I don't think this place even has power."

"I'm pretty sure the map said there was one here…" She answered, looking to her right and left. "Lets just keep looking."

Fang nodded slowly, as the place seemed rather quiet. He walked slowly and kept his gun at the ready. He then felt a glow of light hitting his face, his instincts getting the better of him as he jumped to the doorway with his blaster ready to fire!

"Don't shoot!" Krystal yelled, swatting Fang's hand with her staff, making him drop is blaster as he shook his hand out.

"Ow! What was that for?" He protested.

Krystal gave her a firm look at first, but then slowly softened as she picked up his gun, motioning to the monitor in front of them, giggling. "You almost blew the computer away, dim-bulb."

Fang then blushed, and chuckled a bit, scratching the back of his head as Krystal handed him his gun, and walked up to the keyboard, slowly learning how to use the system.

"Think you can figure that all out?" Fang asked, looking along the keyboard.

"I think so…with a little time…" She smiled a bit and clacked away with her fingers, figuring the system out as Fang kept watch at the doorway.

Krystal looked over and over through the endless databases and files on all Cyber units, trying to find something relevant to ships or cruisers, as the info filed through on white text over a blue background, a "LIFE 2.0" Logo plastered on the background as wallpaper.

She then finally found a category that read, "TRANSPORT HANGARS". She typed away and looked through many, many different bays, all of their up to date records on what ship was in each bay.

A few moments later, after some determined searching, Krystal called out, "Fang! I found it!"

Fang ran in to see Krystal pointing at piece of text that read. "HANGAR 87: Unidentified Cornerian star craft."

"Here it is!" She proclaimed. "Southeastern Transport Base, Hangar 87! We know where it is now!"

"All right!" Fang smiled. "What are we hanging around here for, then? Let's go get it!"

Krystal grinned. "For once, I admire your rookie enthusiasm." She ran out with him.

They got a little ways down the hall, before a single Cyber, left behind to patrol the area, was suddenly standing in front of them.

"Delete! Delete!" Its hand outstretched towards them, as it prepared to fire.

But before Krystal and Fang could react, something struck the Cyber hard from behind, making it's inner mouthpiece fly out! The Cyber smoked and fell forward, revealing Topaz, standing behind it!

"You!" Fang shouted, readying his gun.

"Don't shoot!" Topaz yelled…she dropped her staff soon after, putting up her hands. "Don't shoot…I didn't come here to hurt you."

Krystal gave her an odd look; as Fang glared at the reddish gold furred vixen, then back at Krystal. "I don't trust her, Krystal. It's another one of her tricks!"

Krystal put up her paw. "Giver her a chance…. Something's telling me we should at least listen."

Topaz sighed softly, keeping her hands in the air. "We need to talk…"


	7. Preparations

Fox sat alone in one room, his hand over his eyes. He had been looking and hoping for any evidence as to where Krystal and Fang might have gone to, but nothing was coming up in any of his searches. He was just about ready to give up.

That was, until Falco suddenly charged into the room. "Fox! Fox!"

Fox immediately turned his way. "What? You found something?"

Falco shook his head. "Nope…but Peppy did! I got in touch with him just as soon he finished that big lecture of his at the academy. He rushed back to the Great Fox with Slippy, and did a little scanning of our area. All he had to do was focus and tweak the scanning system just a little bit, before he found evidence of a cloaking device over this planet, right here."

He pointed to one dead looking planet just inside of the Mondas system. Fox looked at the seemingly dead world, and then back to Falco.

"I'll be damned…there could be thousands of those things I fought, hiding there."

Falco nodded slowly. "And it's a good bet our friends are down there with them."

Fox thought to himself. He'd hate to risk losing more cadets, but he also thought that given the circumstances, the Academy would forgive him. It was probably better to possibly lose a few fighters in trying to stop what could be a burgeoning invasion force, than to simply return them, and just let it all happen.

"Say Falco…" Fox smiled. "What do you say to Starfox and Wild Dog joining forces for a little bit?"

"Cool, Fox." Falco smiled, walking out. "I'll go tell Peppy, and he'll be right over."

Fox nodded slowly as Falco left, getting up and adjusting his uniform, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a slightly damaged photo of Krystal.

" Hang in there…please…" He said to himself, before putting the photo away, and walking back out to address his crew.

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Topaz slowly, and sullenly explained everything to Krystal and Fang as they listened to her in the computer room. Fang distrusted her at first, but that slowly melted away, as he saw the look in her eyes that told him she was in earnest.

Krystal shook her head slowly as Topaz explained to her Xerxes' betrayal of Cerinia, and his part in its destruction, as well as him secretly giving the people of this planet the plague he manufactured, and then lying about where it came from so they'd give him the chance to expand his Life 2.0 project.

"My mother found out about all this a while back…" she continued, lowering her gaze. "She said she would take me, leave the planet, and warn everybody…and on her way to get me, Father had her killed…"

"My god…" Krystal put a hand to her cheek, her mouth wide open.

"Every day, she loved me, and I loved her. She always wanted me to learn what she learned through generations of her family, and to put those skills to use for a just cause. I so wanted to believe that this was that cause. But I betrayed her. I foolishly believed everything that my father told me, and committed myself to blind obedience…I've been fighting for a lie." Topaz sighed, looking down, depressed.

Fang now looked on sympathetically, as Krystal slowly moved over to Topaz, looking over at her now former rival softly.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Topaz…" She spoke. "I know we've had some nasty fights recently, and each of us said some very mean things about the other, but I realize now that you were just as much a victim as everyone else on this planet. You, your mother, and every other person here, were all victims of deception. Deception by a smart Cerinian traitor with a twisted view and outlook on life, who'll do anything to get his way…" she stroked Topaz's back, still having much of her compassionate side left, despite her changes. "I forgive you…and wherever your mother is now, I'm sure she forgives you too." She gave Fang a sharp look. "And so does Fang…right, Fang?"

Fang, who knew all too well what it was like to be treated like dirt by family members, nodded gently. "Yeah…I forgive you too, Topaz."

Topaz smiled a bit as she slowly stood up. "Well, we're going to have to save the group hug for later. We need to get out of this planet and warn everyone about Fa-…Xerxes' plans."

"Well that's perfect!" Fang smiled. "We just found out where they're holding Krystal's ship."

"But…" Krystal looked to Topaz and Fang both. "The ship won't take 3."

"That's all right" Topaz smiled as she twirled her staff. "I'll just steal one of their fighters, and fly off with you."

Krystal nodded. "Well, you seem to know what you're doing, so I won't argue."

"Wise choice…" Topaz grinned and nodded as she began to walk off. "Well, you've got a cruiser, I've got a cruiser…lets go!"

Fang nodded quickly as he and Krystal went off to join their new ally. Along the way, Krystal walked right up next to Topaz, curiously.

"I have to ask you. When we were fighting in the elevator, how did you make your staff glow with all that energy?"

Topaz furrowed her brow. "What? You've never heard of the 'Spirit Fury' technique?"

"I'm afraid not…" Krystal slowly shook her head.

"It was one of the last techniques that my mother taught me." Topaz started as she held out her staff some. "The idea is to focus a great deal of the energy in your spirit from inside, and unload it all onto this staff, making it a very powerful weapon…you have to be careful though, if you use it for too long, it can drain your life force."

"Interesting." Krystal looked at her own staff as she walked. "I'll have to see if I'm able to use it some time."

Fang walked out behind the two vixens as they reached they top of the roof. He ran over and looked over the edge, still seeing Cybers marching in the same direction down on the streets. He looked back to Krystal and Topaz. "They're still marching off together somewhere".

Topaz ran over next to him after hearing this, looking all around at the marching machines. "He's speeding up his construction…"

"What?" Krystal tilted her head as she walked closer to them both.

"The ships for his invasion force." Topaz continued. "Xerxes was already nearly finished before you were brought here, and now that I've turned against him, he's trying to beat me to any of his enemies by finishing construction, and launching as soon as possible."

"Well, we'd better get moving now!" Fang said, as he ran into one of the cruisers and fired it up, Topaz nodding as she moved towards her cruiser.

"He's right. Whatever happens, we can't let him get out into space first! We have to get your hangar as soon as we can!"

Krystal nodded as she jumped into the cruiser next to Fang, as Topaz fired up her own.

"Take us up, cadet!" Krystal smiled, as Fang nodded and lifted off from the roof, the Cruiser heading off quickly, as Topaz followed with her own.

The two cruisers soared through the sky, going straight in the direction of the Southeastern Transport Base. The skies seemed pretty much clear of other cruisers, as Fang looked to his right and left as he flew, with Topaz right behind him. "All right, it's looking good." He smiled. "Looks like they're too distracted with their toys right now to-…"

Before he could finish, he suddenly felt Topaz slam into their cruiser from behind! But before Fang could conclude that Topaz had betrayed him and Krystal, he saw a laser blast go by them, one that Topaz had pushed them away from!

"Look before you speak next time, cadet!" Topaz yelled from her cruiser, pointing to the squad of Cyber cruisers that were assembling behind them.

"Do not let the intruders or the traitor escape!" One Cyber spoke to the others in their cruisers. "Lock and delete them all immediately."

"I guess Xerxes didn't completely forget about us!" Krystal said to Fang as they flew. Topaz suddenly took off and flew under them, pulling ahead.

They all started dodging laser fire as Topaz yelled. "I know another way to the base! We can lose these guys down there!" She turned off and dived down to the left, as Fang and Krystal quickly followed, with the Cyber cruisers, eight in all, in hot pursuit.

Topaz dodged more firing as she went all the way down into same underground tunnels that Krystal had ducked into earlier when she got her cruiser, which Fang was now piloting.

"What the hell is she doing?" Fang yelled, having never seen these tunnels before.

"Just follow her!" Krystal responded, as Fang nodded quickly and pulled down into the tunnels with her. Just before they entered, Krystal stuck out her staff in back of her, pointing out with her left arm as she shot off a fireball, managing to hit one of the cruisers right in the engine! The cruiser burst into flames and spun out of control, crashing into two other cruisers and obliterating them as the two finally joined Topaz in the tunnels, the remaining 5 cruisers chasing after them.

The dark, bluish tunnels zipped past the trio as they moved along in their cruisers, Topaz leading the way.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Krystal asked Topaz through her communicator on the cruiser.

"Trust me, Krystal." Topaz smiled as she flew. "I've spent years and years figuring out the layout of this entire city, studying all of the routes. I KNOW where I'm going!"

Fang grinned to Krystal as he flew, liking the confidence in Topaz's voice. "Wow…I think I'm starting to like this girl!"

Krystal kept looking behind her with her staff, as Fang weaved to avoid a blast from another Cyber cruiser. "That's nice Fang...but right now, I need you to think about flying!" She screamed and ducked to avoid a low-hanging pipe from the ceiling, before getting up and glaring at the cadet.

"Sorry!" Fang gritted his teeth, still following Topaz as she drove on with a confident, determined look in her eyes.

"This next right is a tricky one!" She warned Fang through the communicator. "Turn REALLY hard!"

Fang nodded as he saw Topaz go through the hard right in the tunnels, following as best he could, turning very hard with the handles as Krystal hung on tight in the passenger's side, gripping her teeth some before looking back at their pursuers. It seemed they weren't quite prepared for the hard right, as one of the Cyber cruisers flew right into the wall, exploding as the other four tried hard to turn through the blaze, another one smacking into a pipe near the wall, flying up and ricocheting off the opposite wall, and directly into the path of another cruiser. The collision creating another fireball in the tunnels as the trio pulled ahead of the last two remaining cruisers.

"Ok, we're almost there!" Topaz grinned, still leading Fang and Krystal along, as one of the two cruisers got up close, trying to get a good shot. Krystal responded by getting onto the back, and quickly taking out her staff.

"Fang! Fly close to the ceiling!" She yelled, as Fang nodded and brought the ship up. Topaz was too busy leading them to wonder what Krystal was up to, as she quickly struck her staff against the ceiling!

The tunnel around them began to rumble, as Krystal ran over to the communicator. "Floor it!" She yelled, as Topaz quickly nodded and sped up, Fang following suit as the tunnel rumbled more, pieces of rock beginning to break off and fall from the ceiling! One of the Cyber cruisers tried to swoop in and ram into Fang's cruiser from the right, before a rock suddenly fell and crushed it from above!

More pieces fell around the two cruisers as Topaz saw their exit coming up. "Here it is!" She led the way, as Fang sped up to get closer to her. Unfortunately, the last Cyber cruiser had the same idea, flying up closer to Fang's rear, as Krystal watched.

"You will not escape!" The Cyber yelled.

Krystal sighed and shook her head, before standing, holding her staff out in her right hand, and letting the lead Cyber have it right in the face with a fireball!

The lead cyber fell back immediately, the other two distracted as another piece of rock fell and crushed them right into the ground below!

Topaz pulled up and flew through the exit, back into the polluted skies, as Fang pulled up hard to catch up, with Krystal now sitting next to him.

"Good flying, cadet." She grinned to him, as Fang smiled and nodded.

"Yeah…" Topaz spoke on the communicator. "I'm kind of surprised you had enough faith in that rookie to fly through such a challenging system of tunnels. Sure, I've done crazy things, but even I don't have that much of a death wish."

"Hey, shut up!" Fang responded, still smiling though.

Topaz laughed over the communicator. "I'm just joking Fang." She sighed happily, feeling very happy and free now to be out of her amoral father's influence. "Come on, the base is just around this next block. Follow me."

Krystal nodded as she watched Fang bring up his thrusters once more, following the other vixen as she led them to the exact building where Krystal's ship was being held.

The two cruisers parked on the roof once more, since it was closer to where Krystal's hangar was located, Fang leaping out of the driver's seat and readying his blaster, while Topaz rolled out of her seat and twirled her staff. Krystal stepped out slowly, and walked out in front of them both, slowly opening the door to the lower levels.

"Watch yourself." Topaz warned. "Xerxes might be anticipating our arrival."

"Ohhhhh I sure hope he is." Fang growled a bit, cocking his blaster.

Krystal just slowly opened the door with her staff, looking inside and seeing nothing below. She moved in slowly, looking to her left and to her right, motioning to her allies, as they came in behind her.

"Wow." Topaz looked around. "I've never seen this place so empty…Xerxes must have committed nearly every Cyber around here to finishing the construction."

"Well then, looks like smooth sailing to the hangar!" Fang smiled, wasting no time as he ran off in search of it, with Krystal and Topaz catching up quickly.

Krystal cocked her head a bit as she ran. "Still…. something just doesn't seem right about all this. It's almost too easy."

"I know what you mean." Topaz nodded as she ran. "Keep your eyes open."

Krystal nodded, as Fang still ran ahead of them, anxious to find the ship and get off this world, as he looked off into the distance, and saw a marking on the metal walls that read. "HANGAR 87"!

"We're here! We're here!" Fang laughed a bit, as he ran towards the hangar, with Topaz and Krystal behind them.

The joy was short lived, however, as something suddenly crashed through the wall to their right! Fang stopped dead in his tracks, Krystal pulling him over near her and Topaz, as an enormous figure tromped out of one of the other hangars! It looked like a Cyber, but it was much larger! It was at least 7 feet tall, with very long and bulky arms, as well as strong legs and a strong chest.

"Holy crap!" Fang backed up. "It's a Cyber on steroids!"

Topaz gasped. "Oh my god…The prototype Xerxes was working on…he got it to work!"

Krystal looked on as the Cyber spoke in an even more menacing deep voice. "You are not to approach Hangar 87. The penalty is immediate deletion." It held out its arm and let fly a powerful laser blast, nearly taking out the wall behind Krystal as she ducked and rolled with Topaz and Fang at her side, the three of them running off and ducking behind a wall, all of them wondering what to do as the large Cyber tromped out into the hall in pursuit.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Cybers were hard at work in one giant hangar, as one of them tromped over to Xerxes.

"Sir, primary construction has been completed." It spoke. "We are now testing the main thrusters and generators."

"Very good." Xerxes nodded with a smile. "Let me know once its fully operational, then we shall begin our assembly and departure."

"Yes sir." The Cyber nodded as it turned and tromped off, walking towards a giant starship that was now fully built, it's domed front end pointing right towards Xerxes as its middle consisted of a large metallic cylinder, with huge wings, two at each side, as long fins pointed from the end, three big thrusters embedded into the same end.

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The Great Fox sailed carefully through the boundary into the Mondas system, as Fox flew along in his ship with Falco along at his side, as well as Typhon, Boomer, and Hawkeye, all ready to go in their ships, as Peppy and Slippy observed from the Great Fox for the moment.

"Now strategy is a tricky thing when it comes to cloaking devices." Peppy spoke over the communicator. "We could very well catch these guys by surprise, or they could be preparing for us to come in so they can catch us first. We don't know. Either way, stay on your toes!"

This message was mainly intended to the three rookies, as Typhon, Boomer, and Hawkeye all nodded quickly, all of them a bit nervous, as Falco just floated along, checking on his scanners every so often.

In the middle of all this, Fox was floating along in his ship near his crew, having pulled out his photo of Krystal for another look, hoping she was doing all right for herself on this dangerous planet.

"Are you doing ok, Fox?" A curious Slippy spoke up on the communicator. "You seem a little distracted."

"I'm doing all right, don't worry." Fox spoke, as he stayed close to the others, a determined look in his eyes as he flew off to engage these strange new enemies…


	8. Steel Vs Skill

Krystal hid with Topaz and Fang, as the huge Cyber went on the prowl in the hallway, looking for them.

"This thing's a prototype?" Krystal looked to Topaz.

Topaz nodded. "Yes…it's called S.A.M…Strategic Assault Mechanoid."

Fang peeked out for another look at the bulky Cyber, before pulling back. "Well, you seem to know quite a lot about the thing…what's its weak point? How do we take it down?"

Topaz shook her head. "I helped in its design, so it really doesn't have many flaws." Her ears perked as she thought of something, looking to Krystal. "However, if we both used the 'Spirit Fury' technique, we could make short work of it."

Krystal gave her a shocked look. "But I've never known how to use that move. I only learned about it from you."

"You can do it…" Topaz gave her a firm look. "If you're really a Cerinian, then you can do it. Just focus your energy." She then looked at Fang. "Cadet, keep our friend busy for a few minutes."

"Will do!" Fang nodded, before running out to face S.A.M down.

"You want me, you big pile of metal crap? Here I am!" He shouted, firing off his blaster. The shots only bounced off of the huge Cyber's armor, as it turned and held out its large hand, firing off another strong blast as Fang jumped to the right, firing for its big mouth, as the shots only bounced off that area as well.

Krystal held out her staff and closed her eyes, trying her best to focus her energy as Topaz watched. Krystal touched the top of her staff, starting to make it glow just a little.

"That's it…" Topaz nodded with a smile. "You're doing it, just focus a little more!"

Krystal just about had it, before Fang ran right towards S.A.M, trying to nail the huge machine with a closer shot, before the Cyber brought up its left arm, and smacked into him with its wrist, sending him flying many feet before landing on his back, groaning and rolling with his gun!

"Fang!" Krystal opened her eyes, running out to help her comrade, as Topaz grunted in frustration and ran out to hold S.A.M back, holding out her staff with both arms, and sending an ice blast to the machine's large feet, coating them both in it. The huge Cyber stopped for a moment, as it was partially immobilized, before firing at Topaz with its left hand, as she jumped and flipped out of the blast's way, smashing her staff against the ground. The ground shook as the Cyber stumbled a bit on its frozen feet, before it swung its right arm across to hit Topaz, who ducked and rolled as it missed, and swung back in the opposite direction, swiping for the vixen as she rolled again, shooting for its face with a fireball, as the huge Cyber simply blocked it with its left arm.

Fang slowly rose back to his feet with Krystal's help, as she watched Topaz duck and weave to avoid the attacks of the enormous machine, pounding its fists into the metal ground as the vixen rolled out of the way each time to avoid being crushed. Topaz was still waiting for the right moment to use her "Spirit fury".

Krystal closed her eyes again as she remembered everything that she'd been through…being pulled to this planet, meeting Topaz, reconciling with her, learning the truth about Cerinia's destruction, learning what a good, but troubled, guy Fang was deep inside, as well as her re-thinking her views on Fox since the break-up, and now being able to help Corneria with the threat of the Cybers once she got off this planet.

"I can't let this all end here…" she said to herself, slowly putting her fingers on the head of her staff. "After everything that's gone on, and everything we can still do for those outside of the Mondas system…I'm not going to let the three of us die in this hangar!"

She ran her fingers down her staff as it began to glow…"Spirit fury!"

Fang watched on in wonder, as Krystal soon made her staff glow all the way down to the end. Topaz turned as she avoided another swipe from S.A.M, looking to Krystal and nodding in approval.

The blue vixen screamed out in rage as she experienced this great rush of power for the first time, running determinedly down to where the huge Cyber was facing her down. It lunged for her with its right arm, trying to grab her with its huge metal fingers, before Krystal was able to fall down onto her back and slide, swinging up her glowing staff with her left arm as she passed under its legs, the staff slicing its arm completely off.

The Cyber stumbled and looked on at its smoking stump, as its arm fell onto the ground with a hard metal clang! Krystal slid over to the wall, panting a bit as the glow left her staff, her first experience with the attack taking a lot out of her.

"I'll take it from here, Krystal!" Topaz smiled, as she stepped back and soon made her staff glow with the same energy. "Spirit fury!"

Fang watched with Krystal as Topaz twirled her glowing staff, knowing how to control the energy better with experience, as she brought it above her head and spun it, before slashing it across S.A.M's face, impairing its vision as sparks flew from its eyes! The machine made a lunge for her with its only arm, as Topaz kicked it out of the way and brought the staff above her head, bringing it down vertically as it sliced through parts of the Cyber's chest, making it spark more.

S.A.M stumbled and made a weak grab for Topaz, as she jumped back and spun her staff at her side, sending the glow everywhere around her with an odd kind of grace, as she stepped in and suddenly thrust her staff forward, jamming the head into the Cyber's chest, and penetrating the armor.

Sparks flew everywhere from the Cyber's body, as it stood with its body shaking, its remaining arm hanging limply as Topaz pulled out and stepped back once more, breathing a little hard as she readied herself for a final attack, her right arm holding the glowing staff far off to her left side.

"Blue flash!" She yelled, before swinging her staff all the way out and back to her right, the entire mass of blue energy leaving her staff in a magnificent flash, and shooting right into the body of S.A.M. The Cyber sparked and sputtered, before its face, its body, and then even its legs, all blew apart in a spray of metal parts, nuts, and bolts, leaving very little behind as Fang and Krystal ducked to avoid all the flying metal.

Topaz breathed heavily as she slowly regained her energy, Fang running up to her side. "Wow, that was cool!"

"Amazing.." Krystal smiled, referring to Topaz's finisher. "What was that move?"

Topaz chuckled. "That was the Blue flash, the most powerful maneuver you can pull off with the Spirit Fury…be thankful I never got to use it on you." She smirked.

Rumbling noise soon interrupted their relaxation, as Topaz gasped, and ran over to a window between the hangars, and looking out.

"Oh no…"

"What is it?" Krystal ran over with Fang, her jaw dropping as she saw the enormous starship coming up from its base, the sound of its thrusters almost drowning them out.

"Look at the size of that thing!" Fang observed.

Topaz nodded. "This is Xerxes' flagship, his proposed base of operations in his grand scheme to spread his word, to convert everyone into Cybers, and kill every opponent in his path…he calls it 'The Messenger'…"

Krystal nodded as she watched with Fang, the ship beginning to head out of the atmosphere, with many Cyber fighter ships behind it.

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"Peppy!" Slippy called out from one of the seats on the Great Fox. "The scanners are picking up something big!"

"Let me have a look!" Peppy went over as quickly as he could for a hare his age, his eyes going wide as he gazed at the computer screen.

"Boys…" He spoke into the communicator, to Fox, Falco, and the three cadets. "This is turning out to be much worse than I thought. Take a good look at your scanners, and you'll see what I mean."

Each one of the pilots looked down, seeing the shape of an enormous starship coming out of the cover of the cloaking device, with readings of the fighters Fox encountered all around it.

"So that's what's been hiding there all along…" Fox responded, ominously.

Falco floundered with the controls as he saw them. "This is weird…I'm not picking up any life signals aboard the ships…just one really faint signal on the big ship." He furrowed his brow. "Just what the hell are piloting these things? Robots?"

"Cybers, Cornerian!" A distorted voice spoke suddenly over the communicators!

Falco jumped a bit as he, and the others, saw the face of the mangled, half-metallic fox, appear on all of their screens, his red eye shining in the light.

Fox narrowed his eyes at the one he assumed was Fang and Krystal's captor. "Who are you?" he asked, almost threateningly.

"Allow me to introduce myself." The Fox smiled, the Cybers tromping behind him. "I am Xerxes, longtime lord and protector of the Mondas system. The creator and ruler of all Cybers." He motioned to his creations in back of them.

"So they ARE robots." Falco sneered.

"They are like you!" Xerxes snapped. "At least they WERE…they have all been upgraded. They are now the ideal life forms for the galaxy, rational, undying, and unyielding in loyalty to the leader and the collective. They are Life, 2.0!"

Peppy tried to address Xerxes calmly. "Is it your intention to colonize outside of the Mondas system?"

Xerxes gave him a firm look. "It is our intention to upgrade every planet and star base in the galaxy. You shall all be like us!"

Peppy returned the firm look. "And if Corneria refuses?…"

Xerxes scowled. "All of those who stand in the way of progress shall be deleted!"

Fox had heard enough of this, as he looked right into Xerxes' eyes. "Where's Krystal?"

"Ah yes, her…" Xerxes slowly shook his head. "As a fellow Cerinian, I had hoped to win her over to our side. She would not join us though, so she had to be deleted, along with your precious cadet."

"You're lying!" Fox pounded his dashboard with a growl. "You're lying to me, I know it!"

Xerxes lowered his gaze at Fox. "I do not lie, Cornerian…so it seems your efforts towards a rescue mission are premature…" Fox breathed heavily as he tried to hold back a single tear. Xerxes spoke again. "You have a simple choice at hand now…you can all be upgraded, or you can all be deleted…which shall it be?"

Fox looked around at his crewmates, sensing all of them in his own way, as each one nodded to him in encouragement. He then looked back at Xerxes, staring at him from the screen.

"Go to hell…" Fox said softly.

"After you." Xerxes responded, before cutting off the communication. He then turned to his Cybers. "Delete them all before moving any further."

"Yes sir." One of the lead Cybers spoke, before tromping off with the other Cybers to their fighters docked on The Messenger.

Meanwhile, Falco turned to Fox's ship as he spoke on his communicator. "Think we've got a chance against these guys?"

Fox sighed and smiled a bit. "Well…there's only one way to find out…"

"We're with you, Fox…all the way!" Hawkeye called out to his commander, as Boomer and Typhon echoed their sentiments.

Peppy nodded. "That's a good call, Fox…we've got to make a stand here and now…Slippy and I are already starting to send warnings to all surrounding star bases, to get ready to defend themselves if anything should happen to us."

"Well, I definitely think making a stand is the right thing, when you get down to it." Falco nodded. "It's what Krystal would have wanted…"

"You're damn right it is!" Fox nodded firmly, gripping the controls to his ship…

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Krystal was now making the final adjustments to her ship, hoping to get it fully running again soon, as Topaz waited in the next hangar, sitting in the cockpit of a Cyber fighter, adjusting the controls to the communicator. She had used her fire magic to safely put long burn streaks on both sides of her ship, so she'd be recognizable to Krystal and Fang among the other Cyber fighters.

She finally found a link to Krystal's ship, as her voice came on over the communicator in Krystal's cockpit.

"How are we doing in there?" She asked, Krystal too busy as Fang, sitting behind her, answered.

"We're just peachy keen over here, Topaz." He smiled. "Just one more adjustment, and we're ready to go!"

Topaz nodded. "Well, I'm all set to go, whenever you are. We've got to catch up with Xerxes as quickly as possible, and get to his ship's weak spot!"

"Weak spot?" Krystal inquired.

Topaz spoke again. "Yes, an often overlooked flaw in its design…and I'm betting that Xerxes was in too much of a hurry to leave to really cover the thing up…it's a faulty regulator right between the rear thrusters. If we can score a direct hit on the thing, we might be able to ignite the entire main engine in the process, and blow the whole ship to smithereens."

Krystal nodded slowly. "The only problem is getting by those fighters that are covering its back."

"You leave those guys to me." Topaz proclaimed, confidently. "Are you running yet?"

"Just one second…" Krystal grunted as she struggled with something. "This last mechanism's being a little tricky…"

Fang reached over to a dial nearby. "Maybe if you just made a little tweak right here…"

With that, the engines suddenly fired up. Krystal sat up with a surprised smile, looking over to Fang. "I would have never figured that out…you've finally made yourself useful, Fang." She giggled, jokingly.

Fang grinned and nodded as he sat back, letting Krystal shut the cockpit as she spoke to Topaz. "Ok, Topaz, we're fired up and ready to go!"

"Great!" Topaz smiled, bringing up her ship. "I'll lead the way! Come on!"

Krystal nodded as Fang strapped himself in, bringing up her ship after Topaz, and following her as they blasted off towards the back of The Messenger.

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Fox, Falco, and the others, braced themselves, as Xerxes sent an entire squadron of Cyber fighters after them, the crescent shaped, silver ships zooming right towards them as Fox flew out of the way while they fired, Falco diving down and pulling up hard to meet another one, firing his blasters as Hawkeye joined with him, coming out of the left and firing at the same time, both of them blowing up the fighter.

"Great job, fellow bird of prey!" Falco grinned, saluting Hawkeye as the Hawk smiled and returned it.

Boomer and Typhon teamed up soon after, Fox looking on proudly as they got two Cyber fighters to follow them, firing away. The two rookies flew right towards each other, then pulled up at the last second, making the two Cyber fighters run right into each other, blowing up.

Fox couldn't watch for long, though, as he had another fighter on his tail. He swerved to avoid the fighter, quickly diving way down, off to the left, faster than the fighter could follow…he then sharply pulled back up, and let the fighter have it with his blasters, blowing it up as he flew right past it.

Xerxes watched from the bridge of The Messenger, seeing his force reduced quickly until there were few fighters left.

"They're good…" He scowled. "Much better than I gave them credit for." He smiled slowly. "But even the best organic skill is no match for sheer, unflinching steel, especially under great pressure." He looked to another Cyber commander. "Launch another fleet!"

The Cyber nodded and walked off, before another one tromped up next to him.

"Sir, there are two unauthorized craft attempting to move in from behind."

"Onscreen!" Xerxes barked, turning to another monitor. He then saw Krystal's ship, and the once de-commissioned Cyber fighter flying right beside it.

"Not even S.A.M was enough, eh?" He slowly shook his head, before looking back to the Cyber bearing the news. "Push them back and delete them quickly! We can no longer afford distractions here!"

The Cyber nodded, giving the command to the fighters in back of The Messenger, as they turned to Krystal and Topaz's ships.

"Ok, here they come!" Topaz yelled, pulling up to face them as they flew in and started firing, Krystal and fang defending themselves from the onslaught as Topaz twirled and distracted the Cybers in her fighter. "You two find the regulator, quickly!"

Topaz narrowly avoided the flame of the rear thrusters, as a Cyber fighter ran right through it and burst into flames, crashing into two other fighters as it flew out of control, Krystal swerving and shooting at a fighter that flew right towards her, and blowing it up, as Fang kept his eyes wide open between the thrusters.

"These guys are playing hardball now!" Falco yelled, firing at the next barrage of ships as he took a little damage, but kept himself up under the flashing and banging of the Cybers' ships.

Fox nodded his sentiments, as he talked to his cadets. "Keep pushing, you guys! Don't let these chrome plated bastards take away your edge!"

The cadets all nodded and fired away, as Peppy watched on with a concerned Slippy, who was still sending out warnings to other bases.

"I don't know how long we can last here!" Slippy shouted out to him.

"Just give them a little more time, Slippy!" Peppy responded. "I'm sure these guys can a find a way to push them back."

As this was going on, Topaz was still trying to give Krystal space, the blue vixen letting Fang be her helping eyes as he looked out for the regulator, Topaz spinning as she flew and fired at a Cyber fighter zooming towards Krystal's ship, blowing it up.

"Hold her steady!" Fang shouted, as Krystal nodded and looked on, keeping her eyes open for other fighters even as Topaz protected them with her flying and fighting skills.

"I see it!" Krystal shouted, pointing straight ahead, seeing the small regulator, as Fang was able to see it too.

"All right! Good! Good!" Fang grinned, holding out his hand, putting his uniquely skilled marksmanship with fighter blasters from the Academy to good use. "Just hold her steady, and I'll help you get lined up…" Krystal nodded as she began to follow his instructions, still looking out for enemies as Topaz successfully flew past and blew them back.

"Little higher…little higher…" He spoke intensely.

Topaz soon dove down below them and off to their right, getting a few fighters headed for the two to follow them.

"Just a little higher…" He watched the target slowly line up with the ship…

Xerxes grinned to himself as he watched Fox and his friends struggling against his Cyber fighters in the distance.

"The purification of the universe is at hand…"

"Fire!" Fang shouted, as Krystal quickly shot off her blasters, watching the multiple shots smash right into the regulator between the thrusters.

"You got it!" Topaz shouted over the communicator, as the back of the Messenger began to ignite and explore from the inside, the fireballs moving slowly up the length of the ship.

"Sir! The main engine is about to explode!" A Cyber quickly warned Xerxes.

"What!" Xerxes shouted as he turned to the screen that showed the view from the back, seeing Krystal's ship still present, before turning and seeing his daughter fly past the front, side to side with The Messenger. He spotted her in the cockpit as she turned to him and saw her lips move, shouting the words "Deleted!" to him.

Xerxes sighed and lowered his head, accepting his fate, as the sirens blared, and the ship rumbled, pieces of the ceiling beginning to fall around him.

"Well done, child."

"Something's happening to the big ship!" Hawkeye shouted, being the first to spot the explosions, as everyone else took notice. The Cyber fighters all quickly turned, just moments away from destroying each of them, and flying back towards their flagship.

"Well I'll be damned!" Falco shouted, laughing and cheering as Fox and the others watched on.

Peppy scratched his head as the explosions slowly reached up all the way to the front of The Messenger. "The Main engine seems to have exploded from inside. Now what do you suppose could have suddenly caused that kind of chain reaction?"

The remaining Cyber ships soon turned away from The Messenger, flying away and scattering themselves across the galaxy, as two other ships suddenly appeared from the fireballs, flying away from the Messenger as it floated aimlessly through space, and exploded spectacularly into a great mass of fire and metal parts, scattering out into space debris.

Fox and the others shielded their ships from all this, as a voice suddenly appeared over the communicators.

"Hey guys! Miss us?"

Fox jumped up immediately. "Krystal! You're alive!"

"Nice to see you again too, Commander." Fang's voice chuckled over the communicator as well.

Fox gave a great sigh of relief. "Good job cadet…good job…Once I tell your superiors, you're gonna be a hero a the Academy, my friend."

"Wait a minute! Who's that with you two?" Falco sat up to attention upon seeing Topaz's ship, gripping his controls.

"Relax pal, I'm on your side." Topaz's voice came on.

"Who is that?" Fox furrowed his brow.

"I'll explain on the way." Krystal spoke. "Let's head back to base right now." She giggled and sighed, rubbing her head. "It's been a real exhausting time."

Fox nodded slowly, turning and heading for the nearest base, as the others followed him.

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Krystal got out of her ship with Fang on the base, as Fox immediately ran up to meet her.

"Krystal! Krystal I-"

The Blue vixen put up her hand. "We'll talk later Fox." She sighed and began to walk with the Fang and Fox, looking very worn out. "Right now, I've got more important things on my mind…"

"Like what?" Fox tilted his head.

Krystal smiled. "Oh, a hot bath…some soothing music…" she turned to Fang. "And a little more of Fang's Red Cactus…" she pulled the canteen out of his pocket, and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Fang!"

She giggled to herself and walked off, as Fox cocked an eyebrow at Fang. The Coyote blushed and looked away, as Fox reached down, seeing a second canteen in his pocket, as he pulled it out, opened the top, and sniffed it, his crewmates looking on.

"Red Cactus…" Fox slowly shook his head. "Fang…" He slowly smiled, as he did this, holding out the canteen.

"Fang…You still have a lot to learn about sharing!"

Fox laughed with the others, as Fang chuckled and nodded, Fox taking a sip from the canteen and passing it around.

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Deep into space, a single figure floated around amongst the debris.

Xerxes had sustained much damage in the explosion, his lower body completely ripped off, as his upper torso floated lifelessly along.

Out of the darkness, one of the surviving Cyber ships floated past the body, a mechanical claw reaching down from the bottom, and catching it, pulling it up…

That's all for this chapter. Don't worry, there's a little more coming up!


	9. A Brand New Start

Krystal sang to herself softly as she stepped out of the bathroom in her quarters, dressed in a purple bathrobe. She did exactly what was on her mind, relaxing and cleaning herself off in the nice warm bath, soothing to most of her achy muscles, while the Red Cactus she sipped took care of the rest. She really didn't want to leave the tub, but realized that there was more than one person in the room, the person who was responsible for much of her aching, as a matter of fact.

She walked to Topaz with a contented smile on her face, as the other vixen sat on the bed in the two-bedroom quarters.

"Bathroom's all yours if you want it." Krystal smiled as she pulled Fang's canteen from the pocket in her robe and placed it on a dresser for now, gathering her outfit.

Topaz just sighed and gazed downward, looking depressed.

"Hey…" Krystal walked over and sat next to the blonde vixen. "Why so glum?…"

Topaz sighed. "I was thinking to myself while you were in there, and I remembered saying how all that time I was fighting for a lie…although I turned against that lie, I ended up killing my own father, and I've left myself all alone in this universe. I don't know what to do with myself anymore. I don't know if it's right that I should even still exist, after everything I've done."

"Topaz…" Krystal gave her a sad look, as Topaz sniffled, tears beginning to run down her cheek. The blue vixen hugged her softly.

"You were young." Krystal spoke softly, comforting her. "You wanted to believe your father so badly. You wanted to trust him. Any child would. And he exploited that trust, he betrayed you. Well, he's got his comeuppance now, and you're still here with the right people, realizing how wrong it was to fight for his side, and deep down wanting to change. That reason alone makes it worth your existing."

"You're right…" Topaz sniffled as she hugged. "You're right…"

Krystal smiled as she pulled back from the hug. "You know, now that Xerxes is gone, you and I are the last two Cerinians left in the galaxy. We should stay close to each other because of this fact…like sisters, almost."

"Sisters…" Topaz giggled a bit as she wiped away her tears. "I think I'd like to have a sister." She sighed a bit and shook her head, giggling again. "I still don't know what to do now, though."

Krystal smiled slyly. "Ohhhh you'll figure something out…in the meantime, I know something that might help you feel a little better."

Topaz shook her head slowly. "I doubt it…"

"Oh, I don't." Krystal patted her back.

Time passed, as Krystal was sitting in her outfit and reading a book, listening to Topaz sighing happily and splashing gently in the bath through the closed bathroom door. It had been such a long time since she'd been in such clean and warm water, and she was enjoying it all immensely.

A knock was heard at the door, as Krystal walked over and opened it. Standing on the other side was a familiar face.

"Fang!" Krystal smiled widely. "How are you doing?"

Fang smiled, his face a little bruised, but he was in good spirits. "Oh, I'm doing ok. How are you two holding up?"

Krystal giggled as she looked to the bathroom door. "Well, Topaz is doing better now, I can assure you…and me? I'm doing ok."

"Just ok?" Fang chuckled. "I'd be in pretty high spirits knowing I fired the shot that brought a down a whole dangerous armada."

Krystal sighed and smiled a bit, looking down. "Oh, I'm just feeling a complex set of emotions right now. I mean, this was, without a doubt, one of the most intense adventures I have ever been through."

"Tell me about it." Fang chuckled. "After going through all that, the Academy's gonna be no challenge. Campus life just isn't gonna be the same after this experience."

Krystal smiled. "Well…if that's how you feel, I could probably pull a few strings with the Academy and team Starfox. I'm planning to go out at some point and start tracking down the remaining Cybers, and I could use a good wingman out there."

Fang grinned and nodded quickly. "Yeah! I'd love to team up with you again, Krystal. And hunting Cybers would sure beat the hell out of another semester of those dumb simulators." He then turned and waved. "Well, I promised the guys I'd go meet them at the eatery. See ya later!"

"Take care of those sharp eyes, Fang." Krystal smiled as she waved back to him, turning and closing the door, sighing a bit and giggling. "That boy has a hell of future ahead of him. And to think I may have been the one who helped give him his start."

Fang walked out slowly in the hall, as an anxious Fox came out to meet him.

"So?…How was she?" Fox inquired.

Fang smiled a bit. "She seems do to be doing pretty well. Topaz is with her, trying to relax, though, and if you disturbed her, that would be BAD…"

"Ok…" Fox nodded gently. "I'll come back and check later…."

"Good plan." Fang smiled and nodded. "It's not wise to try and make amends on an empty stomach." He smiled as Fox nodded and walked off to join his cadet, the two walking off to the eatery.

Some time later, Topaz was standing around outside, in one of the halls of the star base, waiting for Krystal as she went off to pick up a few things at a shop for the night. She was freshly bathed, and still in her scantly clad outfit. She observed everything. With a light smile now, before somebody decided to stick his nose in her business…

Falco, who'd had more than a few sips of Fang's red cactus, and was feeling rather confident and loose at that moment, walked right up to her with a grin, thinking she would be just another ditzy vixen, like Krystal was at first.

"Hey there, good-lookin'," He said as he walked to her. Katt was on another base, so he thought he could get away with a little flirting.

"Erm…hello…" Topaz narrowed her gaze at him.

"What, may I ask, are you doing standing out here all by yourself?" Falco grinned.

Topaz looked away from him. "I'm waiting for Krystal to come out here with our food."

Falco nodded. "I see…well, don't eat too much now…wouldn't want you ruining that gorgeous figure of yours." He then walked past Topaz, and gave her a playful little swat on the behind.

Topaz jumped, her eyes going wide as this happened, before she slowly narrowed them, a scowl creeping along her muzzle. She may have been trying to change her excessively violent ways, but she still had her limits. Within seconds of this playful, flirtatious move, She quickly reached over, and grabbed Falco from behind, putting him in a chokehold as her right arm wrapped around his neck.

Falco grunted and struggled, but to no avail, while others watched on, as Topaz increased her grip on him. "Listen pal…I don't know what kind of girl you think I am, but you should know right here and now, that I'm not the kind of girl who would go for a slime ball like you…if you ever…EVER touch me like that again, you're gonna be pulling your beak out of the wall…Are we clear?"

"Crystal…" Falco managed to choke out.

Topaz nodded and quickly released him, letting him drop down onto his stomach as she slowly walked off, some of the other males quickly moving back as she walked away in search of Krystal.

"Man, Falco…" Hawkeye chuckled as he caught this incident, watching with a few of his friends on the base. "You just got your ass kicked by a girl."

"Shut up.." Falco mumbled, rubbing his neck as he got up.

"I won't forget this." He frowned to Topaz as she walked off with her back turned to him. He then walked over to a mirror and looked at the mark her chokehold left around his neck. "Awww man…" he groaned. "How the hell am I gonna explain this to Katt?…"

Topaz soon forgot about the incident, as she had soon returned to her quarters with Krystal afterward, her new happy self once more, enjoying some of the great food that the blue vixen had picked out. For years, she had been subsisting on the same stale rations that she had force-fed Fang while having him in captivity, and forgot what real food tasted like.

But now that she had re-discovered it, she was in absolute bliss. Every bite she took she gave off a happy "Mmmmmm…", and a giggle when she took other bites, absolutely giddy, and not paying any mind to the curious people in the neighboring quarters who were hearing all these pleased moaning sounds, as Krystal just smiled and let her "sister" enjoy.

Fox decided to come by their room just as the two were enjoying dessert, and softly knocked on their door.

"Hmmm?" Krystal perked her ears as she rose from where she sat. "I guess Fang wanted to tell me something else." She giggled a bit and walked to the door, freezing just a little as she saw whom it really was.

"Fox…" She spoke softly. Fox looked over her shoulder, seeing that Krystal was showing Topaz the joys of eating ice cream straight from the carton.

"Hi Krystal…" He looked again. "Am I interrupting anything? I was hoping we could talk…"

She looked over to Topaz, who took another spoonful and gently nodded towards Fox, telling her to go with him.

"Oh, no…no, we can talk for a bit…follow me." She started to lead him away as Topaz glared at Fox from the table.

"Krystal's told me about you." Topaz spoke as he still stood in the doorway. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood now, because if I wasn't enjoying this ice cream, I probably would have kneed you right in the jewels the minute she opened the door for you."

Fox blushed. "Well…thanks for sparing this time, then."

Topaz nodded as he finally walked off to join Krystal, who led him into a lounge room of sorts nearby.

"What have you been telling Topaz?" He chuckled a bit.

Krystal blushed and looked down with a smile. "Ohhh, don't mind her…. she's just a little protective of her sister, is all."

"Sister?" Fox furrowed his brow.

She giggled a bit. "Not literally no…it's a long story."

"I see…" Fox nodded slowly. "Listen, I just wanted to come by and tell you that you were fantastic…absolutely fantastic out there."

Krystal nodded slowly as she walked past him. "I'm glad you think so highly of my abilities now…but I don't believe any of your cadets had to take down an empire of murderous cyborgs in order to meet your approval."

Fox sighed. "Look, I realize what I did now…I shouldn't have been so adamant in holding you back, and keeping you from really exploring your potential out there as a fighter." He shook his head slowly. "I was just too scared…so many awful things can happen to you out there…and I cared about you too much to let any of them happen."

Krystal looked back to him. "You can't keep tightening your grip on those you care about, Fox…" She shook her head slowly. "It's just going to make it easier for them to slip through your fingers…and that's what happened, Fox…I slipped right through your fingers."

Fox sighed as she turned her back on him once again. "Look…I realized that fact ever since we broke up, and I've felt terrible about it ever since." He slowly walked up and put a hand on her shoulder. "But I'm not ready to let this all die out…I don't want to give up on us…and I hope you don't either."

Krystal nodded slowly as she turned to Fox, looking up at him. " I don't…" she slowly ran a hand along his face, "I really would like to see if we could love each other again, Fox…and maybe someday we will…" She then looked out the window to the stars. "But there are still Cybers out there…and right now, as far as I'm concerned, I still have work to do."

Fox stroked her muzzle a little in return. "Hey…let's say we give each other a little time…You do what you have to do, I'll take of my responsibilities, and we meet back here at this base in about…oh, 2 weeks?"

Krystal nodded. "I…I think I'd like that." She then softly smiled, and leaned up to kiss Fox gently on the cheek.

"Thank you for talking with me Fox…Take care of yourself."

She slowly walked out as Fox smiled a little and nodded gently to her.

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The next day had come, as Krystal stood with Fang, and Topaz. Topaz was now wearing a new outfit, a black and orange suit that covered much of her body now, standing at attention with the other two as Peppy stood off to the side of the Communication console, the head of General Pepper now present in front of them.

"On behalf of the Cornerian Army, I thank the three of you for averting what clearly would have been a tremendous crisis for our worlds." The General spoke. "I received all the files based on information given by all of you on our new enemies, the Cybers. What I find most distressing about this situation, is the fact that many of these beings escaped from the Mondas system immediately after their flagship was destroyed. This means that they may try to re-group, and attack us again."

"They're not gonna be able to do much." Fang spoke up. "Now that Xerxes is dead, they're without a leader."

"I don't know…" Topaz slowly shook her head. "I've known these things longer than you, Fang…They can be very crafty when they need to be."

"There are also other issues at hand, such as the circumstances of Xerxes' supposed death." Pepper spoke up.

Krystal perked her ears upon hearing this. "What do you mean by 'supposed'? Xerxes was on the Messenger just before it blew up, Topaz saw it herself." Topaz nodded in agreement.

"That may be…" The General answered. "But we sent a team over recently to survey the damage we caused, and we must have scanned the area around the former flagship a thousand times…we found a few of Xerxes' remains, but they were all from the lower torso, nothing from the upper body. Nothing at all from the spinal cord up was discovered."

Topaz's eyes went wide as she heard this, listening intently with Krystal and Fang as The General spoke again. "We don't know what this might exactly mean, but we do think that this calls for an investigation, to see if Xerxes truly is dead, and to confirm it if he is. We also need some people to keep an eye on the remaining Cybers for the time being, preferably people who have encountered them before. That's why I assembled you three here."

The General turned to Fang. "Cadet Fang…I have personally secured a leave of absence for you, from the Academy, so that you may assist in the surveillance of the Cybers, under Krystal's supervision. From this point on, you are an active pilot of the Cornerian Military. Wear your title well."

"Yes sir." Fang bowed his head politely. "Thank you sir." He then smiled over to Krystal, who winked at him with a smile.

"Topaz…" Pepper turned to the other vixen. "While it goes without saying, Corneria has pardoned you for your previous affiliation with the Cybers. We would now like you to use your extensive knowledge of these beings against them, and join in this surveillance, again under Krystal's supervision."

"I gladly shall, sir." Topaz bowed her head. "Thank you."

"And you, Krystal…" Pepper turned to her with a smile. "Your performance in the Mondas crisis was exemplary in our eyes. We of Corneria feel that you have not only proved your mettle as a pilot, but that you may also be ready to command your own squadron. We'd like you to start with these two pilots, to show us what you're made of." He motioned to Fang and Topaz.

"This is a tremendous honor, sir…" Krystal smiled as she bowed her head. "Thank you."

Pepper nodded. "Would you like to choose a name for your new squadron?"

Krystal thought to herself carefully, and then smiled. "How about…'Blue Specter'?"

"Sounds good to me." Fang smiled and gave her thumbs up.

"You'll get no argument from me." Topaz smiled, patting Krystal's back some.

Pepper smiled. "Very well, 'Blue Specter' it is. May you all serve Corneria well."

The trio saluted the General, as his image vanished from the Communicator. Peppy smiled as he turned to the new team.

"We've got three arwings prepped and ready for you in the hangar. They're good to go whenever you are." Peppy spoke, as Fang quickly nodded and went off to find his. Topaz went next, confident she could figure out one of these things quickly from her experience.

Krystal just slowly walked along, on the way to her ship, before she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see Fox standing in the distance, with a smile on his face.

Fox stood up straight, confidently giving her a salute, in recognition of her new position, which he had heard about in advance. Krystal smiled warmly at this act, and happily returned the salute.

Fox then slowly turned and walked off, letting her go, trusting her with her new power now. Krystal smiled as she walked away from this scene, very optimistic about the future now, as she went into the hangar.

Within moments, the three arwings took off from the base, Krystal's right in the front, with Fang's off to her left side, and Topaz's on her right. It was a huge a step from where she had been before, being a rookie member of team Starfox, which seemed like ages ago to her, now.

She smiled widely to herself, ready to take on this new challenge, with her allies at her sides, as she turned, and led them off into the depths of space, ready to begin a whole new adventure.


End file.
